Quality Cars Becoming The Norm Rather Than The Exception

For a long time the auto industry has made cars that on average last 200,000 miles at best before it becomes more economical to purchase a new one. Although the life of a car depends on the care and maintenance that have gone into it, it mostly depends on the quality of which it was built in the first place.

If I were to ask you which car manufacturers make the most dependable cars, which companies come to mind? For me I have always thought that Toyota was one of the most dependable cars manufacturers and a leader in quality manufacturing. They dedicated themselves to a strategy of making dependable cars before most other car companies saw the value in this. Because of this first mover advantage, Toyota holds a position in consumers minds that other car companies are having to struggle to reach. Their first mover advantage also allows them to keep developing quality cars and be a bit ahead of the development curve.

Toyota also has an added advantage according to the VRIO model. Looking at the table below and using Quality as the resource I would say that it is Valuable, relatively Rare in the car manufacturing business, Costly to Imitate, and Exploited by Toyota. So long as Toyota keeps improving their car manufacturing process and making dependable cars they will have a sustained competitive advantage and their economic performance with be above average.

Is The Resource or capability…
Valuable?	Rare?	Costly to Imitate?	Exploited by the Organization?	Competitive implications	Economic  performance
No	--	--		Competitive disadvantage	Below normal
Yes	No	--		Competitive parity	Normal
Yes	Yes	No		Temporary competitive advantage	Above normal
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes/No	Sustained competitive advantage	Above normal