J.D. Power Boosts U.S. Car Brands

It might not quite rank with the introduction of the Model T, the opening of the first Japanese plant in America, Lee Iacocca’s defection from Ford to Chrysler, or last year’s government takeover of General Motors as a seminal moment in automotive history.

But in terms of branding impact on the industry, it may prove hard to beat today’s release of J.D. Power’s annual report on initial quality.

For the first time in the 24 years that Power has been publishing its highly influential ranking, America's domestic auto brands came out on top of imports. It may have only been by a single point (109 to 108), but U.S. car brands finally bested foreign carmakers in Power’s crucial measure of problems per 100 vehicles.

Power credits a resurgent Ford for the key recent improvements that finally enabled Detroit's Big Three automakers to squeak past foreign brands in initial quality. Toyota's recalls over safety concerns also hurt its standing.

The findings, based on responses from more than 82,000 purchasers and lessees of new 2010 model-year vehicles surveyed after 90 days of ownership, could help GM, Ford and Chrysler verifiably continue to undermine what has been the major brand advantage enjoyed by most imports, especially the Japanese, over the last quarter century.

Toyota, Honda and other upstart Asian brands established beachheads in the United States in the Seventies because they brought over cheap little fuel misers. But soon the ranking attribute of Japanese brands here became their clear superiority in quality to vehicles produced by the Big Three, who had gotten fat and lazy.

Chastened and hungry, domestic brands began pulling even in quality over the last several years — and they’ve been telling that to anyone who would listen. But there’s nothing like the imprimatur of the iconic J.D. Power report to get consumers and the news media to give due credit where credit is due.

Now, leveraging this massive new endorsement is up to the car brands themselves.

“Achieving quality comparability is the first half of the battle,” said David Sargent, VP of global vehicle research at the McGraw-Hill owned J.D. Power. “Convincing consumers — particularly import buyers – that they have done this is the second half.”