I don’t think there is anything that surprising except for Nissan and Infinity’s ranking.
Not surprising but calculated according to this Bus. Week article about Nissan:
"Ghosn [Nissan’s CEO] decided that it was nuts for the company to try and outdo Toyota and Honda on reliability. Yes, Nissan would have to improve its quality and be competitive. But worrying about outscoring Toyota on J.D. Power quality rankings would be a losing proposition. he was, and is, correct.
Instead, he decided that Nissan would become known for design like no other Japanese company had been. And it’s worked"
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2005/07/nissan_shows_th.html
Ghosn is out for the fast buck, prostituting the fine image of “design”. Well great. It seems that is the way to go now.
Thats a shame.
Now that the suits have recognized the value of “design” (their quotes, not mine), it seems to have been redefined to mean superficial. Whats worse, they’re trading real design assets for fake design cred.
Evil.