BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -

Ford vehicle performance earned more praise as RDA Group gave the automaker its Quality Award — a discretionary honor to recognize substantial improvements in quality and customer satisfaction over time.

RDA Group declared during a brief ceremony recently that Ford has “achieved unparalleled success in quality and customer satisfaction improvement.”

In assessing Global Quality Research System (GQRS) trends from the beginning of the 2006 model year through the end of 2010, RDA Group discovered Ford measured the most significant improvement trend for total Things-Gone-Wrong reduction and Vehicle Quality Satisfaction in the U.S. study.

Based on U.S. tracking data, RDA Group indicated Ford has had the most significant improvement trend of any full-line automaker in the reduction of customer reported troubles from 2006 through 2010.  More specifically, analysts think Ford’s performance has moved from near industry average to on par with perennial leaders Honda and Toyota.

During that same time frame, while some of the best in the industry have remained steady on the percent of customers that are highly satisfied, RDA Group noted Ford has increased and directionally surpassed them, ranking ahead of all other full line automakers in 2010.

“This is a tremendous achievement,” remarked Dennis Pietrowski, RDA Group’s managing director.

“Virtually all manufacturers have shown substantial reduction of customer reported troubles over the years, most of the time with little or no improvement to customer satisfaction,” Pietrowski continued. “As a market and survey research organization, it is gratifying to see Ford embrace the survey results and customer feedback we provide and make truly outstanding improvements.

“The news and data has not always been good over the years, but Ford has focused and persisted and they have made tremendous improvements to their vehicles and the entire customer experience,” he added.

Officials added Ford finished the 2010 model year ranked near the top of the industry while mentioning other third parties have also recognized Ford’s recent successes, including Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates.

“It is an honor to be recognized by RDA for our efforts achieving top quality and customer satisfaction,” stated Bennie Fowler, Ford’s group vice president of quality.

“Quality is part of Ford’s DNA, and the Ford team is dedicated to continually finding new ways to please our customers,” Fowler concluded.