The J.D. Power and Associates 2002 Initial Quality Study (sm) released today showed that the Chrysler Group as a whole posted a 10 percent year-over-year gain in overall quality rankings. With these latest results, the company has posted a 26 percent gain over the last five years.
Within the Chrysler Group, the company's award-winning Dodge and Chrysler minivans achieved a gain of almost 25 percent from last year's ranking, surpassing all traditional domestic manufacturers as well as Honda, according to the study, which ranks new vehicles based on the first 90 days of ownership.
'The Chrysler Group continues to make strong and steady strides,' said Donald Dees, Vice President - Quality for the Chrysler Group. 'The sharing of best practices and processes has been the main focus of our efforts, and both the J.D. Power results, as well as our own internal metrics, reflect these strong gains.'
Dees also noted that the study showed double-digit gains in overall quality for the two most significant new product launches for 2002: the all-new Dodge Ram 1500 and the Jeep® Liberty. Based on problems per 100, which is how the J.D. Power study determines the rankings, both Ram and Liberty posted a 15 percent reduction in PP/100 from the previous models.
'This is a strong indication of our efforts to focus on initial quality as we launch some very important new products, but we are also very focused on other measurements, including long-term ownership, durability and residual values,' Dees noted.
Within the Chrysler Group, the Dodge brand posted the strongest year-over-year gain, with a 15% reduction in problems per 100, reflecting the strong gains in both Dodge minivans and the all-new Ram pickup. |
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