• November 23, 2009

ALG, a unit of DealerTrack Holdings, Inc., which does software for the U.S. automotive retail industry, said Toyota and Honda were the top performers among mainstream brands in its Fall 2009 Perceived Quality Score (PQS). They had also been ranked first and second, respectively, in ALG's Spring 2009 PQS, and the two Japanese carmakers maintained substantial leads over all other mainstream brands.

Taking the third spot was German carmaker Volkswagen (VW), which had ranked fifth in last spring's PQS. VW edged out Nissan, which fell to fourth place from third. Rounding out the top five mainstream brands was Ford Trucks. ALG tabulates results separately for domestic manufacturers' cars and trucks/SUVs due to the wide perception gap that exists between these two categories.

Ford Cars showed the strongest year-over-year improvement in perceived quality, followed by Ford Trucks/SUVs. Ford's ability to avoid bankruptcy and launch new models in 2009 has likely generated increased consumer confidence in the brand. Hyundai rounded out the top three in terms of greatest year-over-year improvement. --Karl Greenberg