daniel q - I have been in the lift truck industry since December 16,1967 & I maybe lift truck stupid or smart but I will guarantee you one thing every day I will function between these 2 extremes. During these decades I have seen and personally experienced products brought to market by most "Quality Name Recognized Brands" Like Cat (before & after MCF), Clark, Komatsu,Toyota, Mitsubishi, Hyster, etc. at one time or other that have signifcant issues from day 1 shipments. Most of these issues were resolved by the manufacturer - introducing retro fits, design changes and working with the dealer to resolve customer relationships.

It is how fast the resolutions (product support) of the issues are made to keep the customer "up and running" is the bottom line of what matters to the end user. Do this right, most customers don't go away. They probably had similar experience with there own products or services.

Quality is as Mr. Tharp says is a bit intangible and a very subjective term. Kinda' like trying to hold JellO in your hands in July at high noon in Dallas or Houston, Texas.

If you read product literature - you'll see terminology like heavy duty, robust, etc. Haven't seen a manufacture say I have a skimpy, small sized whatever - although some say we have an economical truck for those medium to light dute applications and those trucks are often sold into high duty cycle, heavy load lifting on steep crades, applications by inexperienced sales folks to make a sale based upon Feature - low price; Benefit - save you $$$.