Toyota dominates in quality awards

Ipsos South Africa announced the 2014 product quality and customer experience awards winners and among the 18 brands from 12 manufacturers that participated, the quality that is synonymous with Toyota South African Motors was evident.

Toyota dominated in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) category with best LCV brand overall (PP100 score of 39), best one-ton single-cab brand overall (39), best one-ton double-cab brand overall (39) and best local plant manufacturing light commercials (38).

“Quality has always been a big aspect in the customer’s decision to purchase a vehicle. We believe that the nature of the industry has required higher standards overall, including quality and customer experience. At the centre of Toyota is the philosophy of quality, reliability and durability. We endeavour to maintain a high standard of quality,” says Calvyn Hamman, senior vice-president: sales and marketing.

Toyota also won a silver award in the best volume passenger car brand and a bronze in the best local plant making passenger cars category, scoring 28 in both categories. Toyota also won three gold awards in the 11 subcategories which make up the passenger section including Toyota Auris (top hatch), Toyota Avanza (multi-purpose vehicle – MPV), and Toyota FJ Cruiser (small recreational vehicle – RV).

This is the largest study of its kind in South Africa and forms part of the Ipsos syndicated automotive research. The study currently talks to more than 10 000 vehicle owners each year.

The quality survey takes place three months after purchasing a new vehicle to ascertain any problems experienced with the vehicle.

The industry average number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) has remained around the 40 mark since 2011, which is a huge improvement since 2005 when this measurement indicated a score of over 140 problems per 100 vehicles recorded.

Toyota took top honours in the LCV service experience category and Lexus was awarded gold for passenger vehicle service. Overall Toyota scored a silver for passenger vehicle purchase experience and a bronze for service experience and another silver for LCV purchase experience.

“We work hard with our dealers to ensure we maintain high customer experience levels. We have implemented various programmes to assist dealers with standardising the experience for all customers,” adds Hamman.