I don't really care for Consumer Report's automobile rankings and reviews, because they use customers opinions which are ofen very biased, and it only ranks "Initial Quality" for that model year...Might be nice to check with these same customers 4-5 years after they gave their Initial opinions.
I also think they slant the wording to make it sound like Ford is making less reliable vehicles than they did last year??? Perhaps the Japanese car makers improved the quality of their vehicles? Much of the reliability rankings deal with new models or newly redesigned models and it takes a few model years to get the kinks worked out.
Ford has has a lot of transmission problems with some of their models and people don't like to see big expensive parts breaking down in the first year after their purchase. Most people can tolerate a small insignificant plastic trim piece breaking since it does not relate to the reliability...but if your transmission breaks, it really is a significant reliability item and people begin to be concerned about that happening after the warranty period ends?
I do think that US Automakers tend to be complacent when they have a few good sales years, and just want to ride the momentum of that wave. Japanese society tends to look for constant quality improvement and when they build a winning package, they don't rest and wait for the competition to catch up, they continue to look at ways of improving other parts that will give continue to give them an edge on their competition.
I don't think the Japanese car makers consider Ford, GM or Chrysler as their competion as much as they look at the other Japanese and perhaps Korean car makes as their competion.
When Toyota and Honda are almost consistantly the top selling brands, Toyota strives to be better than Honda, and Honda strives to be better than Toyota. Neither is looking to be better than the #10 or #20 ranked automaker like Ford.
I don't think Ford quality is necessarily any worse than it was a year ago, but more likely that the Japanese and Koreans have made improvements in the quality of their cars and selling them at very competitive prices. Much of that has to do with styling changes that remove the little econo-box cars image that they have had in the past. If you buy a $20K car that has all the ride, performance and high-end features of a $30k car, you will be more likely to overlook some of the minor quality issues that you would find unacceptable in the higher-priced car.
...Rich
