Volkswagen could overtake Toyota as world No.1

Cudos to Volkswagen!

Good products, good lineup, efficient engines, I wish them good luck!

david969- You might want to emerge from that cave you live in and embrace the new world order.

you make me miss Michael Taylor

I'm sure they can afford a toothbrush to help them out with that problem.

she is michael taylor isn't she?

They are benchmarking Toyota in quality which is good prospect for quality, reliability of VW's future cars:

"Central among the plans laid out by Winterkorn is a quality benchmark described as fitting the profile of Toyota."

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=119921

Not only Nissan was testing Porsche, but also Porsche is seriously testing Nissan GT-R:
"Our sources have since learned that Porsche purchased a GT-R in America soon after the car's official introduction and quickly air-freighted it to Germany ($40,000 is usually the tab for such an exercise). Some time later, members of the Porsche crew at the Nürburgring brought the car to the Nissan development shop near the track [...] ***Porsche's GT-R had something over 3,000 miles on the odometer.*** Its tires were in tatters. The brakes were terminally toasted."

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=133406
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Yes , Lexus LS430 styling is imitation of Mercedes S class,
but
Lexus's reliability has been always an unmatched benchmark for Mercedes :
"Here's a brief blow-by-blow: In a listing of the least reliable luxury cars, based on 2006 models, three of the six cars are Mercedes: the old S-class (prior to the recent redesign), the CLS and the E-class Sedan."

http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/17/autos/pluggedin_Taylor_Mercedes.fortune/index.htm

"Mercedes' quality is so imperiled that a 9-year-old Lexus LS 400 has potentially fewer problems than a new Mercedes ML."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-02-28-cr-reliability_x.htm

And:

Mercedes benchmarked Mercedes s class W140 on Lexus LS400:

"The LS400 was a new automotive benchmark.
[...]
Stunned by the less-expensive LS400's refinement and quality, Mercedes-Benz engineers were forced into a making a series of last-minute improvements on the W140 S-Class in an attempt to match it."

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6207600/auto-review/2007-lexus-ls-460-4053-miles/index.html
----
"According to Yukihiko Yaguchi, chief engineer for the Lexus IS-F: Since we were coming after the M3, there were numerical targets we had to hit, ***but those were not my target.*** There were some critical 0-60 targets, but most important was that it be fun to drive.”

Yaguchi says that while the M3 is fun to someone who is looking for performance driving, the car may not be appealing to everyone and "those were not his target", his target was to do it different:


“We wanted the IS-F to be fun to drive for everyone. We wanted all the people who love cars and enjoy driving to have the same experience. The skill level shouldn’t matter, whether you are a novice or a racer. "

http://www.egmcartech.com/2007/11/12/lexus-chief-engineer-bmw-m3-provided-benchmark-for-lexus-is-f/
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Can you have 4-wheel steering in BMW 3 like in Infinity G35?
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And TurboSpyder, most of suposed benchmarking Japanese cars on German are interpretations of automotive magazines, not words of engineers or company chairmans like in the case of VW:
"Central among the plans laid out by Winterkorn is a quality benchmark described as fitting the profile of Toyota."

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=119921

Nurburgring has 14 miles, not 3000 miles like Porsche's Nissan GT-R. So they have to do about 200 laps on nurburgring!!!

And reliability rankings are always based on some criterions, this is from where difference come from. As I said you many times earlier that not only sample size matters like you incorrecly think.

Where the Toyoda marks at?

the very TOP of the heap.

cf. pag 84 of the April 2009 CR.

before they even get to be TWO years old, VW products have worse problem rate than FIVE year old toyotas and hondas. (or 3 yr old hyundais.)

its one thing to SET benchmarks. it is quite another to actually REACH them.

My only fear is that Volkswagen might become diluted and lose much of its character.

They have character? The only commercial that ever comes to mind for VW is their low ego emissions commercials... I would argue that they already have no character?

Turbo, you're only agreeing because my comment has a positive tone on something non-Asian. If it were a positive comment on something Asian we all know that you would not be agreeing with me.

Turbo you don't understand.

I'm reading the title thinking, wow, really??? And then I see the projected date of 2018. Hell, I predict Hyundai to be #1 in 2050.

No that is 2009

I admire Toyota for what they have done but to me a see a very bland linupe of cars. Nothing exciting or sporty or fun to drive comes to mind and when I think of Toyota i see the huge Tundra somthing they were sopposed to be against by making fuel efficent cars it seems they are just out for a profit theses days.

It's obvious because Toyota now is in big trouble:

"Toyota operating loss may hit $5 bln in FY 09-10
From:ReutersApril 13, 2009

Toyota Motor Corp's operating loss could balloon to over 500 billion yen ($4.97 billion) in the year to March 2010, as the global economic crisis hits car sales, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday without citing sources.

Sales of automobiles could tumble to about 6.5 million units during the current year, falling 7 million units for the first time in six years, Nikkei said.

A survey of 19 brokerages by Reuters Estimates has operating loss at the world's biggest automaker expanding to a median 550 billion yen in the current year, from an estimated 450 billion yen in the year ended last month.

Analysts say the outcome will depend on the exchange rate, the global vehicle demand and how much Toyota will be able to reduce its costs."

http://autonews.gasgoo.com/auto-news/1009986/Toyota-operating-loss-may-hit-5-bln-in-FY-09-10.html

VW is strong at markets like China, Brazil and other developing countries where most peoples still not care so much to have better car but rather care more to get something quite good to drive for good price, this is where VW chance for being no.1 is, good luck for them.

and those are the ONLY places (almost) where price counts far more than quality.

what happens when Hyundai enters those markets (also with low prices but FAR BETTER quality)? or Tata with their Nano? or the Chinese?

So who are using very valid method, ADAC, Dekra or TUV? Becouse they all have very different reasults with their big sample sizes.
--
Here are ones which are using very valid method, warranty direct statistics:
http://www.whatcar.com/news-special-report.aspx?NA=236323&EL=3263240
Reasults by the brands:
1. Honda
2. Mazda
3. Toyota
4. Mitsubishi
5. Lexus
6. Nissan
7. Subaru
8. Mini
9. Ford
10. BMW
11. Peugeot
12. Opel
13. Daewoo
14. Citroen
15. Volvo
16. Rover
17. Porsche
18. Mercedes
19. Jaguar
20. Volkswagen
21. MG
22. Skoda
23. Fiat
24. Audi
25. Saab
26. Seat
27. Chrysler
28. Alfa Romeo
29. Renault
30. Land Rover
--
Statistics from the same company as above but not form 2008, data isn't updated for same time on this site:
http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/tophundred.html?apc=3128339010848601
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And here are quite informative stripdown tests:
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/dauertest-honda-civic-1.8-sport_831084.html
(summary table at the bottom)
--
Or autobild quality report, but as far as I know it's partially based on surveys(not very good thing) and partially on statistics like TUV reliability(also not very good), but it can be quite informative becouse it takes many factors into account:
http://www.autobild.de/artikel/reaktionen-auf-den-qualitaetsreport-2008_801005.html

They haven't more detailed reasults on web site, there was more detailed quality report in autobild paper magazine with is more useful than this general reasults published on their web site.

"So whom do you believe?"

I don't believe surveys.

"abcd, this data is from the same source that WhatCar magazines uses"

They have much better, more detailed data for their UK operations so better use UK data. And here is the latest from 2008:

http://www.whatcar.com/news-special-report.aspx?NA=236323&EL=3263240

before they even get to be TWO years old, VW products have a worse problem rate than FIVE year old toyotas and hondas. (or 3 yr old hyundais.)
cf. pag 84 of the April 2009 CR.

after a few years, and likely long before the car payments book is done with, the poor suckers who got VW products will be rethinking their purchases.

in the meantime, owners of older hondas and toyotas who PUT OFF buying new cars (simply because they could, the old buses still running reliably), will flood the respective dealerships. i predict by 2012 and certainly by 2018, toyota will still be No. 1 with that position not only unchallenged, but UNREACHABLE by most competitors.

In developing countries, people did care about good car because they don't have so much money to change their car more often like in the US, so they need good car at good price. They need bread and butter car.

which is EXACTLY WHY in news clips and documentaries, you see more toyotas and other japanese vehicles in most 3rd world countries.

Now which car will last you more than seven years?

december 2020???


for all you know, GM may not even be still around then!

and considering their relative qualities, VW is more likely to be 4 or 5 positions BEHIND toyota, honda, ford AND hyundai. close to (if not worse) to today.

...than today.

JD Power survey isn't based on cost of ownership or number of recalls ranking presented above. And becouse Scion has very probably low cost of onwership it's on top.

And JD Power is a survey, surveys aren't measured objectively but subjectively.

The last time I checked the WhatCar? figures include no adjustment for age or average odometer. They cover a broad range of model years. But the model year distribution could vary a lot from make to make.

The ADAC figures are for breakdowns, which are exceedingly rare among cars less than seven years old.

With any figures, you need to look closely at how the stats are derived, and what they actually measure.

Ours:

http://www.truedelta.com/car-reliability.php