The new-car buying process can be either a pleasant or a negative experience. Market research company J.D. Power has, for the 28 past years, released an annual study measuring customers’ satisfaction – and its 2014 report makes for an interesting reading.
Mercedes-Benz earned the top spot in this year’s luxury brand satisfaction index by scoring a total of 761 points. That’s 33 points higher than 2013, the largest improvement noted in the survey.
The CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, Steve Cannon, told Autonews it was the first time in 24 years that the brand earned first place. He added that the programs for improving customer service, which the company had implemented in the past three years were key to Mercedes’ performance.
Second place was awarded to Infiniti, while Jaguar, which topped the premium segment last year, dropped two places to third, with Lexus and Porsche finishing off the top five.
On the opposite side of the spectrum Cadillac, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Lincoln, Land Rover and Acura (in that order) scored below average in the survey.
Among mass-market brands, Mini ranked highest for the fifth year in a row. It earned a score of 727, 9 points up to last year’s.
Buick was the most improved brand in this section, upping its 2013 694-point score by 32 points to 726. This earned it second place, and it was followed by Chevrolet, GMC, Fiat, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Ford.
All of the above were above the segment’s average, in contrast to Nissan, Chrysler, Subaru, Mazda, Scion, Kia, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Mitsubishi, which fell below average.
That’s good news for GM, whose brands grabbed three of the four top spots, and bad for Chrysler, which ranked in three of the bottom four…
All in all, J.D. Power said that the automotive industry in the US improved its sales satisfaction scores, with the average being 16 and 12 points up compared to 2013, for the luxury and mass-market segments respectively.
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