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Oh come on DD, we all know what he's saying here....VW have sold their cars on the platform of quality for more years than I care to remember, hence the value of the backroom in actually blowing the lid off the hype...
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Exactly correct Pug.
I work in the motor industry and get to see some enlightening figures. (So in reference to FiF's 'Silly' thread I am a "know-it-all" who is claiming I am in the industry!)
I am gutted I was unable to get a copy of this presentation but as most of it was highly confidential there was no way Mr Director was letting me get my hands on it.
However...
Two charts which were of interest were Customer Satisfaction and Overall Reliability.
Firstly Customer Satisfaction:
This is taken from an extensive survey and reflects whether or not someone is happy with their newly bought car after 3 years (numbers out of 100).
Toyota are way out in front of everyone. From memory 53 owners are happy with their cars after three years. They are the benchmark for the industry and are considered what to "aim for" by other manufacturers though currently untouchable.
I believe Ford were second at 32. VW at 31. Nissan and Honda were several points lower than this. Vauxhall were "middle of the road".
Not these are manufacturers over a certain size so smaller marques such as Mazda etc were not included.
More interesting, Overall Reliability:
These figures were more than interesting. They reflect the number of "warranty problems" experienced from one thousand cars across the range of the manufacturer.
Guess who is way out in front? Toyota... The figure was in the very early 2000's. This means that on average, a Toyota will be returned to the dealership approximately two times for warranty work. Do note this is not specific to serious/minor issues - simply warranty work.
Ford were in second place however we're talking late 2000's here. Toyota are so way out in front of the other manufacturers it is almost unbelievable.
I can't remember exact figures but Nissan and Honda were lower down the list.
Who was last?
VW. By a high margin. They were in the early 3000's (I think 31xx). The only manufacturer to have there figures in the threes. Apparently the volume of complaints about their cars, service and dealers is much higher than the other manufacturers as well.
Comments that were made to us were VW are in a similar scenario to Mercedes though in a more significant way. Mercedes quality and brand perception started to diminish. They were sensible enough to pull all the stops out to rectify this and now you have cars such as the new E-class. VW, whilst still perceived as good and with a reasonable number of "happy customers", are most definitely on the "downward spiral", not least of all with their vehicle build quality and reliability.
What I found interesting is that is certainly dispels a few myths about Japanese build quality etc. Toyota are completely untouchable for customer satisfaction and reliability by the rest of the industry and will remain so for at least a few years if not for a long, long time. The other Japanese manufacturers are not - In fact Ford are above them in the league tables. Almost unimaginable a few years back.
You'll have to take my word on all the above but it's all true whether you care to believe it or not.
And no I don't work for Toyota :o)
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PU
Just in case you didn't look at them, the links DD gave were to threads which were whinging about poor vw quality.
Jonathan
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