12/08/2008 05:18. It's a big, brash promise from the Dearborn-based automaker--Ford says the quality of its coming small cars will beat that of similar Toyota models.

For the Focus, Ford promises the new version coming in 2010 and built in North America will have best-in-class quality, bar none. Ford will spin off future vehicles from that platform as well, and expects the derivative models to have similar quality.

"We aim to launch our new compact vehicles at 800 things gone wrong per 1,000 vehicles," said Bennie Fowler, Ford's group vice president, Global Quality, in a release posted this morning as auto execs gathered at an annual conference in Traverse City, Mich. "That's more than 500 TGWs less than the predicted industry average -- and we believe these levels will ensure our... // TheCarConnection.com