Reliability in Tough Markets

The stats for the light vehicle sales in the U.S. during the month of February are out. Of course, Toyota’s sales shrank by nearly 9%. The surprising big winner was Ford, whose sales increased 43%, far more than anyone else. Its nearest competitor, Nissan, had a sales increase of 29%. GM’s sales increased by 12%. What may be driving this superb performance from Ford?

We often use the Customer Buying Hierarchy to evaluate a company’s performance against its competitors. The Customer Buying Hierarchy argues that customers buy Function, Reliability, Convenience and Price, in that order. Customers continue to cycle through their alternatives until they have chosen one supplier who offers something important to the customer that no one else offers. As we have noted before, in tough marketplaces, high Reliability is a hallmark of the best industry performers. (See the Symptom & Implication, “Competitors are emphasizing reliability in product quality” on StrategyStreet.com.)

Ford’s reliability is impressive today. (See the Perspective, “Reliability: The Hard Road to Sustainable Advantage” on StrategyStreet.com.) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration measures the complaints it receives about automakers and their products. Their measure is number of complaints per 100,000 vehicles sold. Honda is the leader here, with about 64 complaints. Ford follows at 81, then Toyota at 91 and GM at 104. So, Ford’s quality seems to be somewhat better than Toyota’s today. That is at least one reason why Ford is in the ascendant, and while Toyota is falling off the pace.