Vehicles assembled in Canada scored highly in an annual quality survey released Wednesday, while a General Motors of Canada Ltd. factory grabbed second spot in assembly plant rankings.
Four Canadian-built cars and trucks topped their segments in the closely-watched J.D. Power and Associates initial quality survey.
GM's Oshawa no. 2 assembly plant, which is scheduled to close next year, ranked second in factory quality behind only a Ford Motor Co. plant in Michigan that shut its doors permanently last week.
Three other Canadian assembly plants made it into the list of the top 15 plants in North America, down slightly from six in 2006.
"The significance for Canada is that we cannot afford to be complacent with the status quo," said Richard Cooper, executive director of J.D. Power and Associates Canadian operations. "If we expect to continue to attract investment in auto and parts manufacturing, our claim to quality needs to be demonstrated in the experiences of customers who buy vehicles."
The Honda Civic, Lexus RX350, Pontiac Grand Prix and Chevrolet Silverado posted top honours in their segments in the survey, which measured quality by quizzing 97,000 new vehicle owners after 90 days of ownership.
Civic, which is assembled at Honda of Canada Mfg. in Alliston, Ont., led the list in the compact segment. Honours in the mid-sized premium multi-activity vehicle (MAV) segment were taken by the RX350 put together at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. in Cambridge, Ont.
The Grand Prix and Silverado are assembled at GM's operations in Oshawa, Ont., and captured the awards in the large car and pickup truck categories respectively.
Both the Honda and Toyota plants in Ontario also grabbed second-place honours with the Honda Ridgeline placing second in the mid-sized pickup segment and Toyota Corolla second in compact cars.
The Lincoln MKX mid-sized premium MAV manufactured at a Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. plant in Oakville, Ont., ranked second in its segment.
Overall, Ford Motor Co. won five segment awards to lead all auto makers in North America and its 120 reported problems for every 100 vehicles was the best performance among the Detroit Three and the only one of the three to beat the industry average of 125 problems for every 100 vehicles.
Porsche topped the list, followed by Toyota's Lexus luxury division and Ford's Lincoln group.