General Motors Corp., buoyed by its remade Saturn brand, tied Toyota Motor Corp. in the Strategic Vision annual quality survey, with the world's two largest automakers trailing Volkswagen AG, Nissan Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in the overall rating of U.S. lineups.
GM tied for fourth in the quality survey, to be released today by Strategic Vision Inc., a California-based research firm. The automaker finished in fifth last year.
Saturn ranked fifth out of 21 non-luxury brands, three spots higher than the year before, behind the Volkswagen, Nissan, GMC and Honda brands.
The Saturn Aura, an all-new sedan introduced last year, had the highest score in the competitive medium car segment, beating out the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Nissan Altima.
For years, Saturn has been known primarily for its low-pressure, no-haggle dealerships, but GM has begun to inject the lineup with better styling and interiors, which have paid off in the survey, said Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision.
“They took a huge change in the direction,” Edwards said. “Instead of just relying on the dealership experience, which they've done for some time, Saturn says 'We're going to come out with products that are going to blow everybody away.' “
The Strategic Vision report comes a few days before J.D. Power and Associates is scheduled to release its Initial Quality Study, a widely used measure that tracks the number of problems per vehicle.
Strategic Vision, which surveys about 27,000 U.S. car buyers, takes a different approach, gauging both tangible defects and emotional factors, such as the overall perception of the vehicle and whether a buyer would become an advocate for the brand.
The survey echoes GM's internal research on Saturn, said Kyle Johnson, director of Saturn communications.
Saturn started rolling out a new lineup last spring aimed at raising the status of the brand. The Aura and Sky, a two-seat convertible, were the first to be introduced. The all-new Outlook, a large crossover, followed late in the year.
The interiors have been refined, the handling improved and the body panels, which were dent-resistant plastic in the past, are now steel, allowing for better fits, Johnson said.
In the past, consumers listed value, price and fuel economy as the top three reasons for buying a Saturn, GM research showed. Now, exterior styling, sportiness and interior style are making the list.
“We're competing at a different level,” Johnson said.
With the gap narrowing in objective quality — the number of mechanical defects per vehicle — subjective quality cues, such as the look and feel of the interior, are becoming more important, said Edwards of Strategic Vision.
The Hyundai Automotive Group, which includes the Hyundai and Kia brands, may be the best example overall of how to quickly raise the status of a brand.
The South Korean automaker has made a strong push in the past five years with new and redesigned vehicles for the United States. Five Hyundai and Kia vehicles won or tied for first in four of the 19 Strategic Vision segments, the most of any automaker.
Toyota, meanwhile, had just one segment winner, the Lexus RX 350 in the near-luxury SUV category.
While Toyota's objective quality measures remain high, the company is not improving as quickly as other automakers in the more subjective measures, Edwards said. Strategic Vision saw a similar drop-off in the domestic automakers 10 years ago, he said.
“This doesn't mean Toyota is in trouble,” Edwards said. “It just means that if Toyota ignores these perceived quality cues and decides you're going to buy a Camry because it's a Camry, they will find that they will lose market share in that segment.”
