A survey of U.S. vehicle owners showed a drop of about 20 percent in the perceived quality of Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles from last fall in the wake of its major recall, said ALG Inc.
The unit of DealerTrack Holdings said the decline pushed Toyota from first to sixth in ALG’s Spring 2010 Automotive Consumer Attitudes Survey among mainstream brands. Its perceived quality score slumped to 67.6 from 84 in last fall’s survey.
Honda Motor Co. was far and away No. 1 in the spring survey at 83.2, with fellow Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. second at 70.6. Next were Ford Motor Co.’s trucks, Subaru Co. and Volkswagen AG.
Matt Traylen, ALG’s chief economist, said: “Assuming there are no further quality problems, the media focus gradually diminishes and Toyota stops its heavy incentive spending within three to six months, we would expect Toyota’s PQS to stabilize and begin to improve later this year. However, reclaiming the top spot from Honda will clearly be a formidable task.”
Toyota has faced intense scrutiny after it recently recalled 8.5 million vehicles globally because of problems that cause the vehicles to unintentionally speed up. To counter steep sales woes early this year in the U.S., Toyota ramped up incentives to historic levels. Early estimates show the effort has worked, with a sharp sales rebound seen in the first part of March.
