U.S. Carmakers Top Imports In J.D. Power Survey
The Detroit News
July 16, 2010
Christine Tierney
Domestic auto brands outscored imports in a new poll that shows U.S. automakers growing more competitive after retiring lackluster models and replacing them with appealing vehicles.
Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. both performed well in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2010 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout Study, a survey released Thursday that focuses on how much owners like their vehicles…
Overall, the domestics scored higher than the import brands for the first time since 1997. The U.S. brands attained an average score of 787 points on a 1,000-point scale, 13 points higher than the overall import-brand score. Detroit’s automakers raised their scores by revamping their lineups during the crisis, shedding unappealing models and replacing them with attractive ones, said David Sargent, vice president for vehicle research at J.D. Power.
“The new ones are fundamentally better than the previous ones,” he said. “These aren’t tweaks; they’re all-new vehicles with the same name.”
The difference between old and new scores for foreign nameplates wasn’t as dramatic.
J.D. Power’s APEAL study is the latest in a series of surveys showing that the domestic automakers are recovering their competitiveness after lagging import brands in many areas for years.
“Historically, vehicle models achieving high APEAL scores have been shown to generate faster sales, higher profit margins and less need for cash incentives,” J.D. Power said.
The results suggest GM kept the right brands last year as it emerged from its restructuring. “I think they made some good choices,” Sargent said.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100716/AUTO01/7160347/1148/U.S.-carmakers-top-imports-in-J.D.-Power-survey#ixzz0txUE7hXN
