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Automotive News & Views Inside Line Article Comments Article Comments: Perception Is Reality
149 messages, Last post on Feb 12, 2007 at 1:54 PM
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Article comments for Perception Is Reality - Witness the tale of two companies — Toyota and General Motors. Despite recalls and public relations woes, Toyota's image of bulletproof quality persists, and sales and market share rise. Despite concrete evidence to the contrary, GM's reputation for inferior quality remains, while sales and market share decline. (more)
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The bottom line: Park a 2007 Camry next to similarly equipped G6 or GM sedan at a local mall anywhere in the U.S. Then survey every person that walks by, explaining that they can choose either car, but have to pay/drive/own/live with it for the next 5 years. With the exception of a few brand loyal customers (to domestic model X), the results would speak for themselves. I am from Detroit, and I sell Toyota's. It may all be perception, but until domestics stop having to literally BEG people to buy their products (through rebates, 0%, warranties (GM's new one is a laugher), and below invoice pricing) perception won't be changing within the next 10-20 years. Couple that with the monopoly of patents Toyota has on hybrid technology (we lease old tech to everyone else), and tell me why again it makes sense to buy GM? Brand integrity is a huge problem for GM also. They overproduce, beg to sell, and have thousands in "legacy" costs before they even START building a car. There's more to resale value than just the perception of quality. In the end, try trading in a GM (maybe excluding the Vette), 3 years after purchasing it (even with incentives). The reality speaks for itself. T
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Replying to: tjw1308 (Sep 10, 2006 1:06 pm) I know a hospital administrator who pulls in a six figure income but is practical, by-the-numbers sort of guy. He has never spent his money on high cost imports ranging from Mercedes or even the cheaper-by-comparison Toyotas, Nissans and Hondas. When I've asked him why he doesn't spend his money, which he has plenty of, on a non-domestic car, he says, "All cars these days are good, it's just a matter of degree. I could spend upwards of an extra $10,000 for car that's one step up, but you're mostly paying for the name." This is an opinion he holds about all brands that cash in on their name, including Toyota. To this day, every vehicle he has ever owned has been a domestic because he values cost/value ratio above many factors in a purchase. I remember the old 7up ad that said, "Image is nothing, obey your thirst." In a sense, that applies here only as, "Brand image is nothing, obey your sensibilities." |
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Replying to: phinneas519 (Sep 10, 2006 2:45 pm)  The fact is, the majority of the car buying public is nothing like the enthuasists who post in auto forums... People don't want to keep a car for over 100,000 miles, they don't want to coast and adjust their tires to get the highest possible mileage. The vast majority don't even want to bother shifting. They don't want to be faced with some major repair they are stuck with out of pocket in the time they own the car. They don't want cheesy looking instrumentation or a dashboard that begins to split in a couple of years, or upholstery where the seams unravel before they even get 30K miles on it. In short, they don't want to pick up the tab for the company's poor business practices and huge overhead fixed expenses, and constantly pay more, and get less, because of them.
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Replying to: ampeg500 (Sep 08, 2006 1:54 pm) |
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Replying to: phinneas519 (Sep 10, 2006 2:45 pm) Comparably equipped the price is NOT $5000-$7000 more... despite what great discounts you THINK you're getting on a GM. Let's say I stickered a 2007 XLE V6 Camry at 35000 instead of 30000. Now I give you a FOUR THOUSAND DOLLAR rebate!!! Woohoo right??? Good illusion of a deal, but whatever works for ya I suppose... When you compare APPLES TO APPLES the Camry is, if not equal, not much more at all (within 1000-2000 at most TMV). People just assume it's more because it's generally believed to be far superior, and therefore must be, much more expensive. Compare a few similarly equipped vehicles TMV's right here on Edmund's for a good example of this. It's that perception that's keeping Toyota from literally annihilating GM altogether. Good thing people actually BELIEVE domestics are sooooo much cheaper even though it just isn't reality huh?  T
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Hate to admit it, but most American cars are garbage. Handling, fit-and-finish, materials, and marketing are lacking far behind. They are closing the gap now; but they aren't really at the top of the class yet. If they think the public has bias against them, look at the sales number! They are garbage, at least not class leading, but they still sell much more than the imports. They should be thankful, not blaming the media or the public for their mistakes. Aside, Toyota is not the car company that made the best cars, but their build quality, resell value, and packaging made them good enough for most buyers. And more importantly, you can't see that they cut quality or MSRP for more profit! As long as people are paying large sum of money, and hold on to their cars over 5 years, it will be hard to people to buy into brands that always capture the headlines for layoffs and price cuts.
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Replying to: 99si2fun (Sep 09, 2006 7:31 pm)
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Replying to: iancar (Sep 10, 2006 4:07 pm) |
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Here's an interesting article on vehicle perceptions, and I think it accurately describes reality at the moment; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/AR2006082500656.- html Bottom line here, the product isn't the problem.
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Replying to: bmk32 (Sep 10, 2006 6:32 pm) It may not be fair, or right, or justified. It is just the way it is. The Camry is a phenomenal vehicle. The problem isn't that domestics aren't catching up, it's just that Toyota isn't exactly slipping either. The 2007 Camry is FLYING off the lot (we rarely have more than a handful on the ground, and the average time to sale is less than a WEEK). There is no domestic (even the Mustang has cooled off), that can claim that with any sort of volume. I think people who were burned by the "old" GM quality defects were lost as customers forever. A lot of them defected to Toyota because of the general feeling of bullet-proof Toyota quality (justified or not). Toyota has simply not "lost" many (if any) customers. To me, that speaks to Toyota's continued quality and resale (it's a lot easier to keep customers when they don't find themselves $5000 upside down in a car after 3 years). This "Initial Quality Survey" stuff is for the birds. Wow, for the first 30 days GM cars hold up real well... Bravo  T
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