Study: Detroit Gains Some Ground in Auto Quality

There's a message for Detroit's automakers in the new J.D. Power and Associates rankings: Good work. Now go back and do it again.

FILE - In this combo made with file photos, logos for the Big Three automobile manufacturers,...

FILE - In this combo made with file photos, logos for the Big Three automobile manufacturers, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, are shown. The Detroit Three have made big improvements to new vehicle quality over the last year, but still lag behind their foreign competitors, according to the marketing and consulting company J.D. Power and Associates. (AP File Photos)

(AP)

The marketing and consulting company's closely watched annual study of vehicle quality found Monday that Ford, General Motors and Chrysler made strides last year but still lag behind their foreign competitors.

At a time when Detroit is desperate to start turning out cars and trucks that people want to buy, the top two brands in the J.D. Power study were foreign cars: Lexus, Toyota's luxury line, and the Porsche. GM's Cadillac finished third.

The survey measures mechanical and design problems that show up in the first 90 days of ownership. The 2009 models turned out by the Detroit Three improved by an average of 10 percent, compared with an industry average of 8 percent.

Toyota, which overtook GM last year as the world's biggest automaker, dominated the J.D. Power honors. It swept awards in 10 vehicle categories, and its plant in Japan that builds the Lexus SC 430 and Toyota Corolla took the award for top plant.

For GM, only two brands performed above average: Cadillac and Chevrolet. The four brands it is purging in bankruptcy protection — Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab — were also its worst rated.

"Is it where we need to be? No," said Jamie Hresko, GM's vice president for global quality. "To have our core brands — Cadillac and Chevrolet — be on par with Toyota, we have reached a level of quality that will allow us to change perceptions."

The scores come during a tumultuous time for the auto industry, with sales at their worst level in decades and taxpayers stuck paying for part of the restructuring of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC to the tune of billions of dollars.

Although the two automakers have been pummeled by the economic crisis, many analysts have complained that a shortage of high-quality small car offerings has hobbled their performance in an already difficult market.