Can Ford Reclaim Toyota's Throne?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A recent study has delivered a rather surprising result: Ford(F) is overtaking Toyota(TM) in "perception of quality."

What's more, the study was conducted even before Toyota's unprecedented halt in sales and production of popular U.S. vehicles.

The study, by Bandon, Ore.-based CNW Market Research, asked 150,000 new-car shoppers how well they perceived the quality of cars from 36 brands on a scale of 1 to 10. The study showed that Toyota and Honda(HMC) have ranked #1 or #2 for the 1997 to 2009 model years of 20 non-luxury brands. However, Toyota dropped to #7 in the most recent study, with an average score of 8.51 out of 10 for the 2010 model year. Toyota's score was 8.97 in 2009.

Auto researcher Edmunds.com predicts Toyota's market share is likely to drop to 14.7% in January, Toyota's lowest since March 2006.

The study, on the other hand, showed that Ford -- which on Jan. 28 reported its first full-year profit since 2005 -- ascended from #14 in the 2006 model year to #6 for 2010 in new-car buyer quality perception.

Toyota's president Akio Toyoda on Jan. 29 told Japanese news agency NHK "we're extremely sorry to have made customers uneasy," on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to Reuters. Toyota says it placed full-page ads in newspapers in more than 20 major media markets throughout the United States on Jan. 31 regarding Toyota's actions involving the sticking accelerator pedal recall.