Commentary: Mercedes' Head-on Collision with a Quality Survey

There must be a lot of long faces at the headquarters of the Mercedes Car Group in Stuttgart. On July 8, the world's most esteemed luxury auto maker suffered the humiliation of seeing its ranking in the annual J.D. Power & Associates Inc. survey of car dependability plunge to No. 26 from No. 16 last year, eight slots below the industry average, trailing Chrysler, Ford, and Plymouth. Ouch! In 1990, Mercedes-Benz (DCX ) proudly ranked No. 1. "Once it was the nameplate of envy. It may be losing some of that shine," says Brian Walters, J.D. Power's research director. Problems cited by consumers in the 962-page report included handling, braking, shocks and struts, electronic window controls, and inaccurate fuel gauges.

Sounds more like problems you would expect in a Chrysler, Mercedes' troubled sister brand. But Chrysler and even Dodge outperformed Mercedes in the survey. Quality problems at Daimler raise questions about the impact of the 1998 merger between Mercedes parent Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. on the Mercedes nameplate. Since then, DaimlerChrysler (DCX ) Chief Executive Jürgen E. Schrempp has sent some of the company's best executives to Detroit to fix Chrysler. Is Mercedes paying the price?