Honda and Toyota are good examples but I think the best would be Volkswagon. They went from the bottom of the barrel $1000 Beetle to high quality and high price (Passat, Toureg) in about 30 years.
The annual car issue of Consumer Reports has found VWs seriously lacking in quality in recent years. Much worse than most other imports.
Just as Japanese electronics has gone from low-quality to high, U.S. electronics has gone from high to low. RCA and GE televisions were the gold standard for a couple of decades – now they’re cheap commodity products and pretty interchangable parts.
Mercury and Oldsmobile were originally much higher-end than Ford and Chevrolet. Now Mercury is pretty much interchangable with Ford, and Oldsmobile has, of course, gone the way of DeSoto.
Then there’s Levi’s. Originally low-cost, high-quality, they got trendy in the 1970s and now seem to be sliding back again.
The Passat is usually an exception to the “CR doesn’t like VW’s” rule, even in recent years. I only remember this because I bought a Passat Wagon partly because they rated it well.
Right. Also, when CR talks about quality, they’re generally talking about reliability. Ferraris aren’t particularly known for their reliability, but I don’t think most people would consider them “low quality”.
Marantz used to be known for durable, high-end, audiophile-quality equipment. In the late 1970s, their reputation sank, as did the quality of their gear, as they tried to appeal to a broader market. In the past decade or so, Marantz turned around its reputation, and is now known for high-end stereos and amplifiers again.
Audiovox used to be known for cheap low end car audio equipment; their name was laughed at. Their equipment has improved in recent years, and they’re making some decent specialized equipment such as satellite radio receivers. (Either that, or the name is being used to brand better but still commodified gear.) They’re now positioned at the bottom of the middle end.
Is this true? My parents-in-law ride Harleys, and even they’ll admit that their motorcycles really don’t hold a candle to those manufactured by foreign companies, quality-wise. While HDs might be of better quality now then they were, I don’t know that I’d consider them high quality. Conventional wisdom (that I know of, anyway) seems to suggest that you buy an HD because you want the name (and that stupid “sound,” after drilling out the damn pipes), but not because you’re expecting a quality bike.
Fast food chain Jack-in-the-Box has been making noises off and on for the last couple of years about going upscale: leaving behind cheap burgers and fries and offering salads and “true entrees.” Seems to me the actual move in that direction has been rather half-hearted, but the intent was there.
If you need the opposite, how about Cadillac division? Caddy’s used to be top of the line, and everything else was judged on Cadillac (wow, that’s the Cadillac of eyewear!). Now, they’re (mostly) just rebadged versions of GM’s cheaper cars.
Foster Grant’s another ex top-of-line that’s now cheap-o.
Apple used to be a premium brand that only knowlegable people with taste and money could afford, but now you can get 'em dirt cheap. Difference here, I guess, is that the quality is still better than anything else on the planet… so I guess this doesn’t count.
All kinds of top-down examples, not too many bottom-up. Let’s try to stick to the OP, then: I guess I can’t really think of too many that haven’t been mentioned. The most compelling example would be just about any Korean auto manufacturer. They’re still lacking in quality metrics, but they’re certainly gained the perception of being a good value. People that pay cheap prices don’t mind inconvenience, as long as the warranty fixes it “free.”
I guess you’re justifed in thinking this if you have been living in a hole since the mid-80s Cimmaron came out. But, except for that car and the Escalade, AFAIK, no cars currently in the Cadillac lineup, or ones that have been there in at least ten years, are rebadged versions of cheaper GM cars.
I concur. If you want a high-end bike, you go for an import. If you want something that you can tinker with in your driveway, you buy American Iron.
Okay, I wasn’t being 100% fair to GM. They don’t do true badge engineering on the Cadillac. They do common platform integration, meaning that it’s not badge engineering. It’s, say, the same difference between a Town Car and a Crown Vic on the Ford side. I tend to forget my audience at times, and as such there’s no literal truth in saying a Caddy is built on a cheaper car’s platform. There is truth in saying that cheaper cars and Cadillacs share platforms, and in many cases the platforms were designed to suit the needs of all cars from the concept phase.
That being cleared up, there’s nothing special about a Cadillac these days. It’s a run of the mill car. Note I’m not saying they’re run of the mill, austere vehicles. They’re now easily attainable by all but the lower classes. I’m not trying to criticize GM in saying this; in the face of pseudo-luxury Japanese cars (true badge engineering in many of their cases), it was a brilliant strategy to cheapen the marque such that virtually anyone but the poor could afford to have one. The Cadillac name, for the time being, is still very, very strong. Even so, Cadillac already has lost a notable degree of the man-on-the-street prestige it once garnered due to this, but prestige is nothing compared to profit. I could re-refer to my comment about Apple computers in my previous post (even though it was tongue-in-cheek, there’s truth behind it).
How about Hyundai cars? In the 1980’s they were unreliable junk. People would drive them for 12-15,000 miles and find their engines burning oil, brakes shot, multiple electronics failures. Also, the bodies rusted.Now, Hyundai cars are starting to approach the japanese standards of quality. They are still not as refined, but lightyears ahead of where they were 20 years ago. VW seems to be on a roller coaster-they made good cars in the 1960’s-then they came out with dreadful cars in the 70’s (the VW squareback had an AT that would self-destruct (repair was impossible)). Lateron, they got considerably better…but lately, VW has been building cars that have been plagued by numerous, expensive problems. The PASSAT is pretty good, but the JETTA is a terrible car.
Let’s take the Sigma platform for example. It’s the platform the CTS, the SRX and the new STS are built on. As far as I know, it’s only used on those Cadillacs. Saab was looking at the platform, but that’s wasn’t for a cheaper car. The XLR is built on a Corvette platform, and Corvettes ARE cheaper than XLRs, but it’s a Corvette. I mean, it rocks. The Escalade I already conceded. The current Deville is built on GM’s G platform, which is used in the Park Avenue, and Le Sabre, I think. So, yeah, Cadillac’s most obsolete car, and one truck (why is Cadillac making trucks?) use platform sharing. None of its new ones are “contracted out” to lesser cars.
Sorry, my hijack is done. And no, I don’t work for Cadillac. 
Another “low price” and at least percieved low quality is New Balance shoes. You used to be able to get New Balance at Wal-Mart for $10 and they were percieved as the “poor kids” shoes (at least, they were when I was growing up).
They are the high end running shoe company. Very high quality, imo.