It's important to remember that every rival automaker is also planning to catch Toyota and Honda in the quality race, with
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| Every rival automaker is also planning to catch Toyota and Honda in the quality race, including Hyundai who is currently in 3rd place. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Hyundai takes 3rd place in the corporate rankings, but doesn't include wholly owned Kia, which would no doubt drag the Korean brand's standing downward significantly if it did, being that Kia currently sits in 13th position out of 14 manufacturers. Kia will most likely be included in Hyundai's overall ranking in future years, but being that all new Kia models are based on Hyundai architectures and components the brand's individual ranking should improve enough not to dilute Hyundai's top-tier rating.
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| Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep divisions finished in 17th, 18th and 26th out of 37 automaker nameplates in the 2004 study. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep divisions finished in 17th, 18th and 26th out of 37 automaker nameplates in the 2004 study, all slightly below the industry average but nevertheless showing improvement over their respective 17th, 19th and 27th place rankings in the 2003 study, which included only 36 nameplates overall.
J. D. Power and Associates releases information on additional studies as well, one of the most notable being the Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS). How does DaimlerChrysler rank? It comes in 9th out of 16 automakers in the corporate survey. It should be noted that one of the 16 is Daewoo, which doesn't really rate anymore due to it being purchased by General Motors and Suzuki - expect it to be pulled from the list in future years, but being that the study rates ownership experiences of cars purchased three years ago, the only way to quantify reliability, Daewoo should be represented for the next two surveys.