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Strategic Vision has announced the results of its annual Total Quality Awards and is touting the performance of Ford this year versus perennial powerhouse Toyota. Both brands have three vehicles each that lead their segments, which include the Edge, Mustang Convertible and F-250/350 for Ford and Toyota's Yaris, 4Runner and Sequoia. The Volvo C30 also led the Small Specialty under $25,000 segment and the Mercury Sable the Large Car category, while the Scion xB was tops in the Small Multi-Function segment and the Lexus RX350 tied with the Land Rover LR2 in the Near Luxury SUV segment. Though all of those brands are technically owned by either Ford Motor Company or Toyota North America, none were counted by Strategic Vision in the battle of the Blue Oval versus the Japanese Juggernaut, though the automakers still would've tied if they were (if Land Rover were not counted as owned by Ford). Meanwhile, the Medium Car segment was lead by the Volkswagen Jetta, though the new Chevy Malibu jumped to second place (how are the Jetta and Malibu in the same segment?), and Honda had only one car make the list, with the Odyssey being named the best Minivan. Follow the jump to view the leaders of all 19 segments.

While most surveys like this count objective stats like the number of problems encountered during initial ownership, Strategic Vision introduces additional criteria by which to judge vehicle quality like the buying experience, what it's like to own a particular car, its performance and driving and even exterior and interior styling. There's a lot of subjectivity in those additional criteria, which tends to skew the results as a whole regardless of the 20,655 buyer-strong sample pool that was surveyed on the 2008 vehicles it bought during September, October and November of last year. Also, as we were reminded by this post, keep in mind that most automakers are actually clients of Strategic Vision, Ford and Toyota included, so there's also money passing hands between these companies. The appearance of conflicts of interest notwithstanding, new car buyers love lists and automakers work hard to land on them, so you decide for yourself how much weight to give to Strategic Vision's 2008 Total Quality Awards.

[Source: Strategic Vision]

Strategic Vision has released its results for the 2007 Total Quality Awards, and the final tally is a bit surprising. For the first time ever, Hyundai has risen to share the position of having the most models leading a segment, along with Nissan. Both brands had three models with the top Total Quality Index (TQI) score in their segments, including the Hyundai Azera, Entourage, Santa Fe and Nissan Maxima, Quest, and Titan. The other surprise is that Toyota, long a leader in perceived quality, led no segments, though its vehicles still improved their TQI scores.

We like the Strategic Vision Total Quality Awards because they attempt to measure more than just the number of problems per vehicle. Vehicles that are more likely to make emotional connections with their owners tend to earn better TQI scores, for instance. That's why, according to the report, the VW Rabbit beat out other strong contenders in the small car class like the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa and Toyota Yaris.

You can check out all the segment leaders after the jump, and view all the rankings by clicking here.

[Source: Strategic Vision]

Strategic Vision just released its list of top automotive brands and models and it looks like Toyota slipped a bit while Honda held strong and GM moved up. Strategic Vision is a marketing research company that consults with automakers on vehicle values. Through surveys, they questioned more than 64,000 new vehicle owners about their experiences and whether they believe they got their money's worth. The study is unique in that it also incorporates emotional responses to vehicles.

Honda stayed on top in the overall rankings as the best full-line automaker, which is no surprise. General Motors, however, won four categories and was the only domestic automaker with a segment-topping vehicle. Toyota, had seven winners in 2005, but managed only three categories this year. "One thing about Honda that is just really clear: They have the strongest brand equity of any brand out there," said Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision's automotive research group. Honda's "perceived reliability and durability," helps boost the brand's value, Edwards added. The full list of segment winners can be found after the jump.

[Source: Detroit News]

Sebastian Blanco, Editor of AutoblogGreen, joins me on the Autoblog Podcast this week as we talk about the results of the Strategic Vision Total Quality Awards and what they mean (if anything). We also spend time talking about diesel's day in the sun this past week as Audi made history by finishing the 24 Hours of Le Mans ahead of the pack with its oil-burning R10 racer. Sebastian helps us go through how the various automakers are preparing for more stringent diesel emissions standards in the coming year and we don't stop before asking what's all the fuss over ethanol.

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Hosts
John Neff and Sebastian Blanco

Producer
John Neff

Length
23:05

Another day, another trophy case full of quality awards to hand out, and this time the presenter is Strategic Vision, which had 29,000 vehicle owners rate their rides in various areas that encompass a product's positive characteristics, reliability, the dealership experience and the owner's emotional response. You can read the down and dirty of the rating process here.

The domestics have a lot to be happy about here considering GM secured a win in five segments, giving it more TQAs than any other manufacturer. Ford only had one segment win, but it was the Fusion in the hotly contested Medium Car category, which counts for something. The Dodge Charger and Magnum both brought an award home for Chrysler, as well. The highest rated vehicle in any segment was the BMW 7-Series and, whaddya know, the Honda Ridgeline can add another notch to its bedpost for winning the Full-Size Pickup segment.

Check out a list of all the TQA winners here.

Greg Melville of Money Magazine cautions car-buyers to reconsider when they hear and read about vehicle awards. In a new article, he addresses the strengths and weakness of the following award givers point-by-point:

J.D. Power & Associates
Melville finds the organization's consumer interviews for their quality surveys to be top notch. However, he maintains the company's 90-day results are irrelevant, and feels the three year results are more informative to consumers.

Strategic Vision
Surveys on buyers' emotional reactions to vehicles, writes Melville, are best left to the buyer since they'll know if they like the car. Or not. Also, choosing a vehicle based on which award it did not win (Vision has 23 categories!) does not inform buyers about specific details like reliability.

R.L. Polk & Co.
Melville believes people's long-term buying habits do not reveal anything meaningful about a car's quality or desirability (e.g., the Saturn Ion and the Mercury Grand Marquis have high loyalty ratings).

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Despite the different--and changing--methodology of both organizations, car buyers should seriously consider their safety ratings.

More details at the link. Curiously, Melville does not discuss what is arguably the buyer's best-known survey and data collection organization, Consumer Reports.

What do you think of Melville's evaluation?

[Source: Money via CNN.com]

Related: J.D. Power revamp should swing quality ratings
Consumer Reports Auto: Two dissenting views
TrueDelta questions quality of JD Power methodology