GM NAMED TOPS IN QUALITY!

By Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman

"Several new GM products took top honors in their segments. Pontiac's G6 medium sedan won out over Toyota and Honda entries, as did the Buick Rainier medium sport utility vehicle (SUV)."

Now that is music to my ears, and it wasn't written by a journalist or some furtive GM blogger. No, that is a direct quote from news released today by Strategic Vision of San Diego and is in reference to their 2005 Total Quality Study. Strategic Vision is an up and coming force in this industry because they offer a unique perspective and a different voice; they don't look exclusively at problems. They look at total quality and the total ownership experience by issuing owners a comprehensive 8-page survey after three months of ownership.

This year, GM had the top rated vehicle in six of the 20 categories, more than any other manufacturer. The 2005 G6, Corvette, Rainier, Escalade, H2, and Sierra 2500/3500 all topped their respective categories.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with these results, particularly in the case of the oft-maligned G6, which by the way, scored extremely well, especially on the emotional side. As Strategic Vision President, Dr. Darrel Edwards says, "As the number of new vehicles and segments continues to grow, understanding the emotional needs of buyers in each segment will be critical."

Understanding the emotional needs of buyers is something we're working really hard to do. Our increased efforts to converse directly with car buyers in forums like this blog are indicative of this. So, like I've said over and over in my posts, yes, we're listening.

As the study also points out, we do have work to do in some areas. The scores of some of our vehicles have suffered as their lifecycles draw to a close. We will be replacing those vehicles this year and next. Stay tuned for more.