Has The Land Of The Rising Sun Lost Its Competitive Edge?

JD Power studies really hit it home with more than a few of you guys. If you are on top of the rankings, you love them, if you are on the bottom you claim hog wash.

When I first saw the results for 2007 in the latest Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) I thought “Not much new”. Then I started looking into the details and I saw a trend I predicted quite a while back was start to surface. Japan is vulnerable.

Being a self professed Euroguy, the first thing I noticed was that every European Union Brand in the study except Porsche improved in the rankings. This is no real surprise overall considering the industry average showed a 4.85% improvement. This has been the trend since this study started being published. Overall the Euroguys rose 8.12% maintaining a steady improvement in their scores above the industry average. Good work.

So how about our good friends over in Korea? Taking a quick look I see Hyundai and Kia combined rose respectably 8.35% overall, again exemplifying the steady increase in quality we have come to expect from them. Normally I would include the guys in maybe a Pacific Rim category with Japan. But last time I did this it was quite obvious from your comments they were not embraced as a true competitor to Japan. So this time they get orphaned off to their own category.

Next I moved the grand masters of quality Japan. This is where I had to do a double take. Overall they show a decrease compared to their results last year of 2.29%. This means if you factor in the industry increase in general, they lost almost as much ground as the competition gained. A double hit. Only Subaru, Honda, and Mitsubishi showed any measurable increase much less maintained status compared to the industry. While Toyota did increase one percentage point the industry overall out paced them so they actually took a step back. Lexus was my biggest surprise. They narrowly maintained their first place position after faltering with a 6.62% decrease in dependability. Buick came in from behind and just made the pace by increasing 5.35% in the standings. So we have a tie.

Below are the figures and how they all compared to last year so you can discuss them as you see fit:

Now for a clearer picture of the winners and losers by brand:

Have Fun!