Ford takes top slot in JD Power vehicle quality study

US car brands as a group, narrowed the quality gap with foreign makes for the first time since 24 years ago, ever since it started tracking the initial quality of new vehicles, says JD Power and Associates. Quality is major consideration with vehicle buyers shopping for new cars.

Apart from the luxury makes, Ford led the rest of the pack in this year's study, which measured 228 potential problems over the first three months of ownership of 2010 model-year vehicles.

Even as Ford surged, the Toyota brand, suffered due to the recall crisis fo the last one year, dropping from the sixth spot at which it was tied last year to 21st - a decline that played a significant role in the reviving fortunes of Detroit vis-à-vis its rivals.

General Motors, which launched five new models for 2010 ended up with 10 models in the top vehicle rankings even though it saw three of its four brands decline in quality scores.

Chrysler, with its four brands scoring below average, showed progress, with the Ram 1500 pickup showing one of the strongest industry improvements.

According to David Sargent, J D Power's vice president of global vehicle research, Detroit-based brands collectively edged past foreign rivals in performance. However, he stopped short of saying this was a turning point. He said to say that the domestics were consistently outperforming the imports, domestics would need to be ahead of imports for several more years.