I think the Asian guys have been slipping alot too, look at Toyota's recall lists recently. But yea, the Hyundais have stayed in it and they keep coming out with better cars year after year. Why cant America look at the competition and say: hey, we better do something better, and then bam, just do it better? It does get lame when I tell people: hey, I got a american car, and they think, well thats nice, but did you know that it came in the middle to the bottom of the list?
Toyota's history of corporate malfeasance, to me, gives their reputation as a car brand a black eye that they've done a good job of covering up with make up.
But let's chat a little more about the whole scenario.
In my career with Ford the only time I'd ever seen the Ford reps were when the one dealership I worked for was putting in the Quick Lane. If you're unfamiliar with the Quick Lane, it's Ford's idea of competing with box stores like Midas, Monro, Goodyear, Firestone, etc. That's years working in the body shop and the service department. Never saw a rep. Whereas I saw the Hyundai rep weekly. Big difference. And the biggest complaint from the Ford reps, when they came in, was that since we weren't a Blue Oval shop, then we couldn't wear the Ford colors. That's the only change they wanted to see when there were some serious issues in the shop itself that they turned a blind eye to.
Hyundai was in on the planning of the Hyundai side of the shop, the showroom, the inventory to start with. They supplied the special tools needed to work on the cars, there was no guess work. On the other hand if you needed a special Rotunda tool that you didn't have it had to be ordered. Dealership support is one of the things that places the Asians above us. The Big Three continues with the idea that the dealerships can support themselves and the cars will sell on brand loyalty. If there's negative feedback from the customers about the dealerships then Ford makes a few criticizing phone calls and simply says, "do better." If we got a bad report from a Hyundai customer then the rep would make suggestions on how to do better, as she was touring every dealership in her area and bringing in ideas from others.
Training support was better. Tell me why, at the one dealership where I worked, the only Ford Master Certified guy was the operations manager and not a tech? Ford could have cared less that the guy with Master Cert's was management. Whereas Hyundai has a separate training for management and technicians and puts the emphasis on that. Hyundai wants to see at least two Silver Certified guys in every shop. If one goes Gold and gets an invitation to go Platinum (yes, Hyundai sends out invitations to go top tier, and by doing so, they keep on an eye on their techs to see who has the best reputation to get the invitation) then they want at least one more Silver guy to go along with the program.
Ford just wants someone in the shop to put the warranty claim in.
From what I'm being told GM and Chrysler are putting an emphasis on ASE's, not factory training.
As a result, if there's issues at the dealership level the Hyundai rep is there to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand. The dealership is the face of the car company. And the emphasis lately, for the Big Three, is just simply let a dealership be that face, good or bad, as long as the dealership is making enough money to continue to flip inventory.
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