Speaking of which, can anyone remember when the definition of the word "quality" changed from "it's a good product" to "it's an exact duplicate of the previous one"? The ISO quality standard is about that something is guaranteed to be made to a spec and a process, not about whether it's something that is function or will last. It seems that there's more concentration these days on verification, yet little on validation. Or, at least, some companies seem to interpret validation only as it applies to verification.
So when a car company spouts about how their quality is high, they're not saying that their cars are good or that they will last a long time - they're saying that they're all made to spec. So, if that spec has a flaw in it (eg: accelerator pedals sticking), as long as they all have that fault, then it's still a high quality product. Yet I'd suggest that the common person that their advertising is aimed at doesn't understand this subtlety.
More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%26V
Meh, maybe it's just me.