Toyota and Honda still have the best relationships with their parts suppliers, but General Motors' efforts to soothe bad relations are paying off, according to an annual survey released Monday.
GM's improvement, though, knocked Ford into last place of the top six auto manufacturers, according to the survey by Planning Perspectives Inc. of suburban Detroit.
The company said 308 top-tier parts suppliers returned its surveys.
Toyota Motor Corp. led all manufacturers in the survey, which measures items such as degree of trust, open and honest communication, amount of help given to reduce costs and the opportunity to make a profit.
The survey ranks automakers on a scale of zero to 500, with 500 being the best.
Toyota scored a 415, followed by Honda Motor Co. at 380, Nissan Motor Co. at 289, DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group at 199, GM at 174 and Ford at 162. The industry mean was 270, the study said. A ranking of zero to 249 indicates very poor to poor supplier relations, the study authors said.
GM, which held last place for the past 15 years, improved from a 131 score, the most dramatic increase in the 15 years that PPI has been doing studies of this type, PPI President and Chief Executive John W. Henke Jr. said in a statement.
The improvement was due to a 2005 program to improve supplier relations, Henke said.
