Apparently Ford’s quality is now on par with Toyota and Nissan, according to a new report released today. The RDA Group has released a report on the quality of 2007 model year vehicles. The group concluded that Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles have the same quality levels as Toyota and Nissan in the first-quarter 2007 model-year Global Quality Research System report.
According to the report Ford vehicles had 1,456 problems per 1,000 vehicles compared to 1,457 for Nissan and 1,453 for Toyota. The report surveyed 30,000 new owners of 2007 model-year vehicles after they had owned them for three months.
The report did not include the new Ford Edge or the Ford Super Duty. Luckily the Super Duty wasn’t included, since they had to temporarily stop making them do to a problem that caused the truck to shoot flames from its exhaust.
Ford Motor Co. improved their overall corporate problems by 8%, which is better than the 2% industry average.
“It’s a big improvement for us,” said Bennie Fowler, Ford’s vice president for global quality, in an interview with the Free Press.
The company also hopes that this report will coincide with the results of the J.D. Power and Associates quality report that will be out later this year.
The report did not look at long-term quality, but according to Fowler “initial quality and long-term quality tend to track together.”
This report has been released a week after another report stated that Ford is the “most-trusted” brand in the U.K. It looks like Ford is finally improving their vehicles.
Full Story: Detroit Free Press
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