Impressions are difficult and slow to change, but when it comes to cars, perceived quality and actual quality could be 2 entirely different things.
People *LOVE* Toyota and Honda for their reputation and perceived quality, and their cars from the 90's totally deserve this. Increasingly, however, design and build quality has consistently gone downhill for these two manufacturers. Their cars used to be vastly over-engineered and over-build so that they are absolutely bulletproof. The same cannot be said of their current vehicles anymore. And who hired Toyota, Honda, and Acura's current designers anyway? They all need to be fired!
Chrysler used to be a innovative domestic manufacturer, although they've always had their share of design and build quality issue. Since their divorce with Mercedes, however, the quality of their cars have fallen faster than a free-falling rock, so their worthless reputation is well-deserved. On the other hand, Ford and GM have continued to improve their products to the point where they might not be class-leading (although they are in selected cases), but many are highly competitive against their Asia rivals. Of course, these two giants have been sitting on their butts and resting on their truck laurels for far, far, far too long, and consumer reputation continues to be quite poor for them. But if you look at products like Cobalt, the upcoming Cruze, Astra, Malibu, Camero, Corvette, Caddilac from GM, and the upcoming Fiesta, Fusion, Taurus, Mustang from Ford, they are all good cars objectively speaking. Subjectively, you may not like them because they are not your style, but that doesn't make them bad cars at all.
Of course, the wonder boys of the auto industry are Hyundai/Kia. Their sales have grown dramatically despite the economic downturn, and they've been pumping out attractive and well-built cars one after another.
-Lik |
發表於 2009-7-27 16:31
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