Trouble at Scion

One taint for Toyota: Vehicles from Scion, the company's new youth-oriented brand, scored worse than the industry average last year in Power's Initial Quality Study. The study focuses on problems consumers report with their new vehicles during the first three months of ownership. Scion vehicles are assembled in Japan.

Some analysts say the highly configurable nature of Scions creates more opportunities for owner complaints. Cuneo argues that Scion's target audience of tech-savvy young consumers has high expectations.

Cuneo says Toyota reviews the same quality measures that Automotive News examined, along with internal measures. "We're very comfortable with our trends, but we want to do more," he says.

There are countertrends, albeit limited. In 2002, Toyota Division beat the industry average by 20 percent in the Initial Quality Study. Last year, that advantage shrank to 10 percent.

Similarly, Toyota Division was 22 percent better than the industry average in Power's 2002 Vehicle Dependability Index Study, which measures vehicle quality after four to five years of ownership. In the 2005 study, Toyota was 18 percent better.