Chery: We Want to Compete with Audi, BMW and Mercedes

Most of us first heard of Chery in 2004 when the Chinese automaker’s QQ minicar was accused of being a copy of  GM’s Daewoo-developed Matiz, pretty much right down to the last spot weld. Attempts to sue Chery failed to gain traction in Chinese courts. At one point Chinese officials claimed they could find no evidence Chery had copied a GM car, even though the doors on the QQ were interchangeable with those of the Matiz. GM dropped the case in 2005 after having reached a settlement with Chery, apparently with the encouragement of the Chinese government.

The Chery QQ episode epitomized China’s notoriously lax attitude towards intellectual property theft, and the bind in which foreign companies find themselves when attempting to gain a foothold in the fastest growing consumer market in the world. It’s highly likely GM took the long view over the QQ, preferring to retain the goodwill of the Chinese government, which allows the company to participate in the highly profitable GM-Shanghai joint venture business, over having its day in court.

Five years later, it’s Chery taking the long view. Company chairman and general manager Yin Tongyao says Chery has V-6 and V-8 engines under development, along with a rear drive platform, as part of an aggressive push into the luxury sector. “You want to compete with Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz?” I ask the personable Yin, who happily conducts our interview on the Chery stand at the Shanghai Show in English, without the phalanx of PR flacks and interpreters preferred by Japanese auto execs. “Not yet,” Yin says. “But some time, yes. And we try to.”

Germany, you’re on notice.

Huh? Right now, the notion that Chery is gunning after the world’s most successful premium automakers is laughable. This is a company that wasn’t founded until 1997, didn’t build its first car until 1999, and barely eight years ago sold just 28,000 vehicles in total. Chery’s current product range is a mish-mash of recycled — or ripped off — Korean and Japanese hardware sometimes wrapped in surprisingly good looking styled-in-Italy sheetmetal (Chery A3) and sometimes truly hideous D-I-Y tin (Chery QQme).

But Yin is serious, and he’s instituted a program called 15/7 — which means he and his senior executives are working 15 hours a day, seven days a week — to help make it happen. He’s also just launched Chery’s own premium brand, Riich. That’s no typo…

Old habits die hard. The Riich logo is a none-too-subtle knockoff of Bentley’s famed winged B. “We try to create some luxury, something a little bit classical,” says Yin. “We think BMW, Mercedes, Audi. That’s why we use Riich . Rich people are the buyers.”

Hmmm… In China, real rich people — and there are reportedly 300,000 US dollar millionaires in the country — buy trinkets like Ferraris and Rolls-Royces and high-end Benzes. Chery’s first Riich models, the G6 (below) and G5 (at left), resemble the sort of plasti-wood, faux-lux sedans Hyundai and Daewoo used to build for the Korean market in the late 80s. The Riich M1 (pictured at top) is basically a reskinned Chery QQ with delusions of grandeur. None is going to get the primo parking spot outside of any of Beijing or Shanghai’s hipper hotels and clubs.

And Yin knows it. “This will take a long time, step by step,” he says of Chery’s luxury brand ambitions. “We are still a baby company; we are very weak. So we don’t want to think that tomorrow we will be bigger than General Motors. That’s far, far away.”

But Yin believes Chery’s stand-alone status (unlike most major Chinese automakers, it does not have a joint-venture operation with a foreign automaker) will be an advantage in the long term. “We have not relied on a joint venture, so we have more freedom,” he says. “We can export, and we have the freedom to decide which car is suitable for the market. Other Chinese companies take a long time to introduce their models their partner. We have tried to develop cars by ourselves, and we have tried to create our own R&D capacity. Now that the government wants Chinese companies to do their own development, we are a little bit ahead.”

I have no idea whether Chery really has what it takes to one day become a serious player in the global auto industry, much less a legitimate premium automaker — trying to decipher the inner workings of the Chinese auto industry is a bit like trying to play Asimovian hyperchess blindfolded. But I do know this: We laughed at the Japanese 50 years ago, and we laughed at the Koreans 20 years ago. Their first products were also klutzy, poor quality copies of other people’s cars. Today, no-one laughs at the Japanese or the Koreans. Not even Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz.

Ferdinand Piech and the New Porsche 914

So Porsche says it can’t make a business case for small cars. The new millennium 914 is off, Porsche AG board member Klaus Berning told Automotive News. Coincidentally, this news comes after Volkswagen AG had offered to help Porsche out of its $13 billion in debt in exchange for 49 percent of the company. VW gave Porsche to Monday to decide on the offer. Scion and Chairman Wolfgang Porsche told his cousin, VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech what to do with the offer.

“Ultimatums don’t belong in the 21st Century,” Porsche told The Financial Times. “We won’t be blackmailed.”

The biggest of Machievellian twists is this: much of Porsche’s $13-billion in debt comes from buying up majority interest — 51 percent — of Volkswagen.

This story is the very definition of incest. In addition to being VW’s chairman, Piech is a Porsche board member. Ferdinand Piech and his cousin, Wolfgang Porsche, have been engaged in a rather public feud for several years.

Some say Piech fell out of favor with Porsche AG when, anticipating a change in Can-Am series rules, he built 16-cylinder engines for the 917. They were costly and never used, and Piech left for Audi in 1972. In the ensuing years, his passion for odd engine configurations, from five-bangers to W-12s, thrived.

Porsche had already turned to VW for the 914, which was sold in Europe as the “VW-Porsche 914.” And the 2.0-liter 924 was originally designed to be an Audi.

Porsche worked on a new entry-level car, the front-wheel-drive 976, in 1992-93, using at least part of the VW Golf’s platform. The project was scuttled after Piech unveiled the Golf-based Audi TT, a car now available with a five-cylinder engine.

And until right about now, Porsche was looking at a rear-mid-engine, four-cylinder sub-Boxster, based on the Concept Bluemotion that VW has just officially approved for production (our European correspondent, Paul Horrell, reported in the April issue that Audi already is working on its version).

No doubt, a Porsche based on the concept would cost way more than the Audi, let alone the VW, version. And yet, the mid-engine, four-cylinder Porsche would have to come in substantially below the Boxster’s $47,395 price.

“There is no business case,” to repeat Klaus Berning’s words, “for Porsche in small cars.”

There would be no business case, or at least no reason for Porsche in luxury sedans and sport/utility vehicles, if it was part of VW, or if VW was part of it. And that’s where the two automakers were heading even after decades of Piech-Porsche family feuds.

While I generally worry about what happens to a brand’s equity and identity when it’s absorbed into a larger automaker, Porsche and VW are clear exceptions, since they have the same founder and have worked closely together for some 60 years. Porsche needs a relatively high-volume fuel-efficient model or two to meet stringent new Corporate Average Fuel Economy, and especially, European Union CO2 emissions standards. So far, it has just two models on the way to handle the problem, the hybrid Panamera and hybrid Cayenne. Ending the Piech-Porsche family feud and absorbing Porsche into VW Group’s CAFE and CO2 numbers is a better solution for the integrity of the Porsche brand.

If only the families could get along, it wouldn’t matter who owned whom.

A Chat With F1 World Champ Mika Häkkinen. Who Loves NASCAR.

The door opens, and in walks Mika Häkkinen, twice Formula 1 world driving champion, winner of 20 Grands Prix during his ten-year career (1991-2001), and the racing foe seven-time champion Michael Schumacher says he admired and feared most. I’m in Stuttgart, Germany, to drive the new 2010 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG sedan, and the maker has arranged for its now-retired superstar (Häkkinen won his championships driving Benz-powered McLarens) to sit down for a brief chat.

The Finnish-born Häkkinen, now 40, looks fit, tanned, and relaxed. As we make introductions, he says he’s already driven the E63 (I drive it tomorrow), and after his flat-out laps around the Nurburgring he found it “a brilliant car. Difficult to find the limit. The car was really well balanced.”

I open by asking the Finn what he thinks of the current Max Mosley versus F1 teams feud. “It’s very negative,” he replies. “But they will sort it out. One day. They will find the right solutions. It will take some time. You have to be diplomatic, find compromises. If you are too direct, it’s over. There’s a lot of questions about egos, you have to really play the game to be able to get the right result. I like the idea of a budget cap, but the big teams like Ferrari and McLaren are going to have big problem spending ‘only’ 40 million Euros.”

When I kid him about Formula 1’s stratospheric driver salaries—Grand Prix pilots are among the highest-paid athletes on earth—Häkkinen smiles but tackles the question head-on. “It is a dangerous sport. To be able to race in F1, you have to be very talented. There aren’t many guys—or girls—in the world who can do the job, who can perform in a level of high pressure, who have the physical conditioning, with great talent, good teamwork. There aren’t many. So that’s why the teams say, ‘Here’s the check!’”

Asked about his favorite tracks, Häkkinen mentions Monaco first. “Really hard—if  you don’t have a good car. Very bumpy. If your suspension isn’t good, it’s like hell. If you go off, you always hit the barrier. If you have a good car, though, Monaco is fantastic. Gives you a great feeling inside. If the first corner goes well, you know right away it’s going to be a great lap. Definitely one of my favorites. Plus I live there—so it’s a short walk home. I know the streets really well!”

It’s quickly clear, though, that Häkkinen most loves one of F1’s fastest tracks, Spa. Especially Spa’s most famous corner, the uphill right-left flick known as Eau Rouge. “You have to be brave there. Eau Rouge used to be scary. Qualifying was very special. Just flat. Just maximum speed. The g forces were so high, going sideways and also vertically. Everything maximum. You really need big balls in that corner.”

Häkkinen then recounts his famous battle at Spa with Michael Schumacher, in which he pulled off one of the greatest passes in F1 history. “I had a tough race with Michael. I was running second, he was leading. About ten laps to go. Couple of seconds gap. I thought, ‘I’ve got to push now.’ The only place to overtake was the exit of Eau Rouge and the long straight that followed. So I had to go flat through the corner. And it was late in the race. Tires are quite finished, suspension quite knackered, and I thought, ‘Jesus, I’ve got to do it flat.’ So I went through and I thought, ‘I’m going to fly in the air!’ I was going so fast. Then we came upon Ricardo Zonta in the middle of the track ahead. I don’t know what he was doing. Anyway, when I saw him there I thought, ‘That’s it, this is the chance for me. If Michael goes left, I’m going right. Or vice versa.’ But of course I didn’t know which way he was gonna go. And of course I didn’t know what Zonta was gonna do. If Zonta changes his line, I’m going about 190 miles per hour he’s doing about 60, so it’s gonna be a big mess. I wonder if he even saw us coming, because we came so bloody quick. I’m sure he had to change underpants after that race. Vrroooom! I went by on one side, Michael the other, and I got the lead. I think Zonta stopped his career after that!”

In addition to Schumacher, Häkkinen spent one year, 1993, as teammate to Ayrton Senna (he outqualified the Brazilian superstar in his first race). “Senna was completely . . . ” Häkkinen pauses to reflect. “I don’t say he was crazy, but his level of fear was nothing. Didn’t matter what speed he was driving, he was always . . . whoosh. Going for it. I had a couple of challenging moments with him, but we never fought like I fought with Michael.”

The Finn remembers his battles with the German fondly. “Michael was really hard. With him, I always felt it was a better to keep a little bit of distance when you’re racing. Don’t get too close. He never gave up. And if I don’t give up and he doesn’t up, you know what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna shunt together. So I said, ‘Okay, no problem. I’ll do it next corner.’ And I think he knew that. He was a big challenge. We never had fights outside of the track. We exchanged a few words, yes, but never said bad things about each other. It was pointless. On the race track, we did our fighting.”

It might surprise you, though, to learn that this twice F1 world champ, immersed as deeply as you can be in the sport of Grand Prix racing, loves to watch good ol’ American NASCAR. “It’s really very exciting,” Häkkinen says. “I think that is something even F1 people are saying, that in F1 there aren’t that many spectators. You don’t feel the public. But in NASCAR, you have hundreds of thousands of people watching, and it’s beautiful. And the racing itself, it’s tough, and you’ve got so many tactics, and it’s easy to understand. NASCAR is quite a tough program, many races.”

Would he race NASCAR himself? Häkkinen shakes his head. “Too old.” Then he laughs. “Well, really, you never know!”

Subaru Legacy sedan grows bigger, roomier for 2010:

A car for every purse and purpose was once a famous mantra of General Motors, and on a much smaller scale, Subaru is adopting that principle with its redesign of the 2010 Legacy.

Ford Fiesta shows fun can come in really small packages:

Even without the sparkly green paint we took to calling metallic Kermit, the Ford Fiesta would have turned heads. Its shape jolts a conservative American sensibility, which, for the most part, equates tiny vehicles with cheap, bland and throwaway.

Taking on the Blue Ridge Mountains in the 2010 Ford Taurus

If a rugged stretch of Appalachia along the Tennessee/North Carolina border seems an odd place to showcase a two-ton full-size family sedan as opposed to somewhere flat and urban (like Chicago), that’s because it is. But that didn’t stop Ford from officially launching its new 2010 Ford Taurus lineup in the Blue Ridge Mountains, home to the famous Tail of the Dragon as well as countless other twisty, driver-friendly roads. With its third rework of the car in five years — starting with the ill-fated Five Hundred in 2005 — Ford’s location choice is a clear indication that it’s feeling confident its big sedan can dance better than the Chicago Bears in “The Super Bowl Shuffle.”

Despite the drive route designed to highlight the Taurus’ newfound athletic stance, the car’s biggest asset is its interior styling. Even on the base model, the plastics are surprisingly soft and comfortable to the touch and seem to be put together quite well. Ford accomplishes this through the use of spray polyurethane to finish the panels, which allows for tighter fits and extra details such as stitching and decorative patterns without adding too much extra cost. The Taurus also features highly comfortable “multi-contour” seats, though the jury is still out on the “Active Motion” system, which is said to help reduce fatigue through the use of inflatable bladders in the seat pad and back rest. Aside from odd sensations in the lower back and gluteus maximus, it’s not certain how well these work. A pad extender for taller folk probably would have been more beneficial.

With the interior poke-and-prod over, it’s time to get behind the wheel. First up: An extended 100-mile-plus jaunt in a front-drive SEL equipped identically to the one driven earlier by MT Detroit editor Todd Lassa. The aforementioned Tail of the Dragon was not on the itinerary, however. Because of its fame, the road has become heavily traveled (and heavily policed), so Ford opted for an alternate route via the area’s numerous state and US routes. The transportation departments in both states are apparently not too fond of great road signage — at one point, the northbound side of one highway and the southbound of another were on the same side of road. Thanks to this and a navigational error or two (441 and 411 look deceptively similar) we took an impromptu detour through the town of Pigeon Forge, a tourist trap to end all tourist traps. The town is home to the Dolly Parton-owned Dollywood amusement park, various theaters, and horrific traffic down the US-441 main drag. After several not-suitable-for-TV words, a pit stop, and a couple of wrong turns, we finally found our way back to US-411. The whole episode probably could have been avoided if our car had been a Limited equipped with the available nav system.

The going got increasingly twisty as the road turned to US-70/US-25, yet the big Taurus was relatively unfazed. The base car’s 263-hp, 249-lb-ft 3.5L V-6 provides ample power and doesn’t feel labored hauling around 4060 lbs — even eliciting a fair amount of torque steer under hard acceleration. Despite its somewhat disconnected steering feel (it’s not any better in the SHO either, from what we could tell), the car turned in compliantly with less understeer than one would expect, although there was just a tad too much body roll for our tastes. Ford even threw in driver-friendly features like standard paddle-shifters (albeit with push/pull operation instead of left-down, right-up) on all but the base SE trim. The gearbox is programmed to hold the selected gear and not upshift until redline (which is curiously missing from the tach) when in manual mode, adding an extra degree of control. Overall, a pleasantly surprising drive that set the bar fairly high for the next day’s drive of the SHO.

Our time behind the wheel of the SHO started out with a torrential downpour accompanied by claps of thunder and flashes of lightning. A wet-weather test looked like it was in the cards, but the rain cleared out fairly quickly. The SHO performed admirably, its 365 hp, 350 lb-ft EcoBoost twin-turbo V-6 delivering certifiably quick acceleration. EcoBoost has been the subject of much hype, and after our time behind the wheel, we can say that it’s been justified. In the SHO, it delivers roughly the same fuel economy as the all-wheel drive version of the naturally aspirated V-6 in the rest of the Taurus lineup, but with an extra 100 horsepower. Ford thoroughly torture-tested the unit before production, putting it through the equivalent of a million miles of use, subjecting it to 360 hours of continuous operation on an engine dyno, turning 1000 hot and cold starts and running it for 1000 hours at sustained peak horsepower and torque for good measure. Even better, Ford says there’s extra power left on tap for tuners to (Eco) boost it further. After some prodding, Advanced Engine Design and Development Manager Brett Hinds said that the engine could be safely coaxed to about 400 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque without major modifications and that there’s some room to increase peak boost past the stock 12 psi.

And yet, the SHO was almost a letdown because, beyond acceleration, it didn’t feel that much better than the regular car. Part of the problem was no doubt due to the fact that the particular example we tested wasn’t equipped with the optional Performance Package (the one MT Technical Director Frank Markus tested was). Instead, it was loaded to the hilt with every option BUT the performance pack and checked in at a considerable $45,175. Without the performance pack’s summer rubber, uprated brakes, suspension, and steering adjustments, the SHO feels just slightly better than the SEL on the road, almost as if it should be positioned as the top-of-the-line ultra-luxury offering of the Taurus rather than the performance variant. The Chrysler 300C AWD Ford had on hand for a roughly 13-mile comparison drive provided a more tactile driving experience, with its V-8 making for more visceral-feeling acceleration as opposed to the SHO’s almost CVT-like behavior due to its plank-flat torque curve. The Taurus is easily the better car overall, though, featuring a much higher-quality interior and modern design. (To be fair, the Chrysler is a five-year old offering and is due to be replaced for the 2011 model year.)

It took some time and a few swings and misses, but for the most part Ford has finally done this car right, creating a flagship sedan the Blue Oval boys can be proud of — the best, most competitive Taurus since the original one all the way back in 1986.

Porsche Panamera carries on the Zuffenhausen tradition:

After four years of development, countless scoop photos and a grandiose unveiling atop a skyscraper in China, we finally have the key to the 2010 Porsche Panamera in hand.

Crash Test Dummy . . . Me.

I had our long-term BMW 335d over the weekend, and on Saturday decided to take a longish drive out to explore a SoCal air museum. Along the way, I was marveling at the car’s twin-turbo, direct-injection diesel six, its 425 pound-feet of torque making highway passing and hill-climbing simply effortless—even under relatively hard acceleration, the automatic didn’t bother shifting any more once it reached sixth. It’s a magnificent powerplant, that diesel, and definitely the engine I’d choose if buying a regular 3-Series.

Anyway, just short of my destination, I was stopped at a red light, tinkering with the audio system and trying to find that song about the—

Ka-bam! Somebody had either just hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat, or my driver’s seat had just exploded. For three or four seconds I was confused; the noise and the violence of the blow had temporarily short-circuited my neural system. When my brain rebooted, I looked up in the rear-view mirror. There was a VW Jetta, hood jackknifed upward. I’d been rear-ended. Hard.

In a state of shock and still dazed by the blast—that’s really what it felt like—I began a quick triage routine, first checking that all my bits and pieces were still intact, then observing my face in the mirror to see if I’d hit anything (apparently, I hadn’t). The BMW was still running, so as the Jetta driver eased around me and pulled over, I’ll pulled off the road behind him.

The driver’s door of the VW opened. Out climbed a teenaged kid, barefoot, in T-shirt and shorts, hands in the air. “Man, I didn’t even see you,” he said. “I had my head down.” Probably looking for your shoes, I thought.

The kid had driven right into the back of the BMW doing at least 30 mph. I never heard any tire squeal or other sign that he’d attempted to stop. Just the gentle thrum of the diesel engine one moment, then an explosion of sound and stars in my eyes. The 335d took the impact remarkably well; it was still drivable, and the rear glass was intact. It’ll need a new trunk lid and rear end, and possibly some supporting bits underneath, but it didn’t fold up like a chewing-gum wrapper. The kid’s Jetta, the lighter of the two, didn’t fare so well. The entire front end had stepped backward a few inches, the hood was folded, and the radiator was likely damaged. It still ran, though—at least enough to get the kid the half-mile back to his house.

Neither of us appeared to be hurt, though today, two days after the wreck, my back is sore and my neck is throbbing. (And, no, unless for some unexpected reason I begin experiencing a lot of additional pain, I have no plans to sue.) What I realized, though, was that the instant of the impact must be how it feels to die. You’ve taken a “dangerous” flight in a U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet only weeks before, and now you’re “safely” minding your own business at a stoplight, looking for a favorite song on the radio, when with no warning whatsoever there’s a huge bang! and the lights go out. Had it been a side impact, at only slightly higher speed, my lights could’ve gone out forever. As it was, I was damn lucky. Lucky, too, to be securely belted into a sturdy BMW.

Normally, I keep my head on a swivel even at stoplights; I watch the rearview mirror and mentally “stop” the driver behind me. More than once in my driving career, I’ve had to squirt forward at the last moment to avoid being rear-ended. This time my mind was on music and my coming visit with old airplanes. And, as I sat motionless in a cloud of false security and distraction, the odds caught up with me.

When operating moving machines, especially big and fast ones like cars and airplanes, inattentiveness simply isn’t allowable. The kid who hit me failed epically, as many young and/or stupid drivers do. He’s alive to drive again, though, and with luck he won’t be so careless from now on. I count myself fortunate, too. It won’t be so easy to get me to take my head off its swivel again.

2010 Ford Taurus: Way more car than the Taurus of old:

Ford Motor Co.’s success with its sixth-generation Taurus lies not in the quality of the vehicle–it may prove to be the best sedan the company has ever produced–but in the company’s ability to convince customers that this is a Taurus.

Our Truck of the Year Gets Good JD Power Scores

DETROIT - Ford is pretty proud of its latest JD Power and Associates Initial Quality Score (IQS) results, released Monday. The Ford F-150 scored just 88 problems per 100 vehicles, tying the Toyota Tundra in its segment for best pickup truck score. The industry average for all cars and trucks that JD Power measured averages 108 problems per 100 vehicles. This year marks the first time the F-150 had led its segment since 1996, which also coincided with an all-new model.

So with the new F-150’s scores, Ford is disproving the old rule that you should avoid the first model year of a new model if you want good quality.

High quality was designed in to the manufacturing process, says Bernie Fowler, Ford’s group vice president for global quality. That means the design makes it hard for line workers to make mistakes in building the truck. The supply base also is part of that solution, Fowler says, and Ford will continue to improve the manufacturing process to increase quality, he says.

The F-150 isn’t the only bright spot among all-new models. JD Power also singles out the Acura TL, Honda Pilot and Nissan 370 Z.

Good news for the domestic brands is that initial quality has improved 12 points in the last year. In 2008, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler averaged 124 problems per 100 vehicles. This year, it’s 112 problems per 100. That’s four points short of the average overall; 108 for the industry, down from 118 per 100 vehicles last year.

On the other hand, Jaguar suffered a drop in score, to 134 problems per 100 vehicles, from 112 per 100 in ‘08. This year, it’s tied with Dodge. Jaguar says its number-one ranking in another JD Power survey this year, for three-year dependability, better reflects the “huge progress we’ve made.”

And here’s where the IQS results get tricky. Do they reflect real problems, the kind that mean you have to drop off your brand new car before work and pick it up a day or two later? How much nit picking occurs? This is the kind of variable that’s hard to measure, making it impossible to determine exactly how close Chevy or Ford quality is to Toyota or Honda quality, for example.

Jaguar says its drop this year is the result of minor problems with its new XF sedan. “Ninety percent of the score is from one model’s launch, the XF, in which minor launch glitches/issues impacting the score have since been resolved,” says Stuart Schorr, Jaguar Land Rover’s North American veep for communications and public affairs.

Which glitches? The touch-sensitive glovebox button, which looks cool in the XF but can open the glovebox on your date’s knees when it’s brushed by mistake. Or, it doesn’t open as easy as it should. Jaguar has abandoned the button for a conventional latch. Schorr also cites a fuel filler flap problem that also has been solved.

“The score was also impacted by customer questions on brake dust, a common issue,” he says.

There’s also the question of whether Jaguar owners, for example, demand more than Ford F-150 owners, for example. I don’t think that’s true anymore - the F-150 hasn’t been a simple, low-content model for some time. King Ranches and Platinum trim level models can easily breach the lower end of Jaguar’s price range.

The important question, as we report how rapidly GM’s and Ford’s quality (Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep all are still near the bottom of the list) catches Toyota’s and Honda’s, is, how close are they, really? Are Camry or Civic owners expecting more because of what they’ve had in the past, or are the domestics really as trouble-free as JD Power suggests?

Cadillac jumped from 13th to third this year, with a score of 91 PPH, just behind Porsche (90) and Lexus (84). At 102, Ford is just ahead of Chevy (103) and behind Toyota and Mercedes (101), Honda (99) and fourth-place Hyundai (95). On the other hand, some of the best-scored models are cars and trucks that their makers have been making so long, they had better be well built. Pontiac G6 tied with Chevy Malibu for second-best midsize car (Nissan Altima was first) and the best-rated large car was the Mercury Sable.