Erin noted Toyota Motor Company’s impressive
9th-place
ranking on Fortune’s 20 Most Admired Companies list; unfortunately, there are no other automotive companies
that made a similar impact. When it came to knocking auto companies in a wide array of categories related to business
performance, though, we saw plenty of familiar names.
Least Innovation – Ashbury Automotive Group(#8);
Worst People Mangagement – Delphi (#4); Worst Use of Assets – Delphi (#1), Visteon (#6); Least Socially Responsible –
Federal-Mogul (#5), PACCAR (#8); Worst Management Quality – Delphi (#6); Worst Financial Soundness – Delphi (#1),
Visteon (#7), Federal-Mogul (#8); Worst Long-Term Investment – Delphi (#1), Visteon (#8); Worst Product Quality –
Navistar (#10). No, I didn’t intentionally leave out any automotive companies who ranked on the “Best” lists;
there simply weren’t any.
Don’t put too much weight in these lists, though; after all, Altria was named one of
the Most Socially Responsible companies. I personally think that a number of automotive companies were
slighted by their lack of inclusion on the Best Product Quality list; are we really to believe that a health-insurance
company and the New York Times are worthy, but yet not any of the automakers? Bah.