Customer satisfaction study puts Big 3 in top five, Cadillac tied for No. 1 with Lexus
2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon – Click above for high-res image gallery
The American Customer Satisfaction Index for automakers from the University of Michigan is being released today, and sitting at the very top are Cadillac and Lexus in a two-way tie for first place. The study continues its Detroit lovefest by giving the third spot to a tie-up of Lincoln-Mercury, Buick and Honda. And that moves us into spot No. 7, where Toyota shows up in a tie with Volkswagen.
Great news for American automakers? Great fodder for the marketing departments at least. Automotive News (sub. req.) quotes Claes Fornell, the director of the MSU's National Quality Research Center as saying the great leap in customer satisfaction is, oddly enough, at least partially due to a huge drop in sales. Fornell says that the few people buying American cars are hardcore American car drivers, and are more likely to respond as satisfied to a survey.
The good news, Fornell says, is that a smaller, more devoted group of buyers is more likely to be repeat buyers. In a New York Times story, Fornell says, "In most cases that's not a good thing, to increase the satisfaction of their customers by losing them. But in Detroit's case, it's probably not that bad. It leaves them with a smaller, more satisfied customer base that they might be able to manage better and build from."
In the study, Volkswagen was the most improved, bettering its placement by 6.2% from last year, and Ford jumped 5%.
A table of scores since 1996 is available here and should be updated sometime today with 2009 numbers.
Gallery: 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon
[Sources: Automotive News and The New York Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gary 11:09AM (8/18/2009)
The headline start out positive, but there's the usual negative spin:
"Fornell says that the few people buying American cars are hardcore American car drivers"
Yeah, only "few" people buy American cars.
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Luis 11:11AM (8/18/2009)
40% fewer than last year. So sure, fewer.
mapoftazifosho 11:12AM (8/18/2009)
Last I checked, GM still sold more automobiles in the US than Toyota.
Nixapatfan 11:18AM (8/18/2009)
The media is just pathetic, couldn't this be true for all car sales last year? They all dropped significantly it's not like the domestics lost half their customers and the imports gained them all. Anything to take a dig at the domestics I guess.
The truth is the slow sales rate gives a dealer more time to spend with the customer, ensuring a happier customer.
nrb 11:25AM (8/18/2009)
Gary, you should have quoted the rest of the sentence. It gets your point across better.
These idiots are effectively saying that people who buy American cars don't know any better and will erroneously mark up American cars.
Wow. Just Wow.
leunamme 11:26AM (8/18/2009)
I think you misunderstand. He's not saying few people buy american cars, a lot of people do. But he's saying that so many do because they aren't interested in the cars they drive...
Not that I agree, but that's what I got out of that statement.
BTW, love the new CTS Sportwagon, but that D pillar is too thick. more glass please.
daleam 1:21PM (8/18/2009)
You expect anything other than spin from the media when it comes to the American automobile industry?
the4thheat 1:09AM (8/19/2009)
Uh, GM might sell more vehicles but you should check those Cadillac sales figures. For that matter check how badly Cadillacs depreciate and it becomes fairly obvious that only someone who already really, really, really, loves Cadillacs would be willing to pay extra to drive it over other luxury brands (people who buy new luxury cars often sell them after a couple of years so the depreciation difference is fairly significant).
Anyways if a brand has continually plummeting sales and yet increasing customer satisfaction percentages it's fair to assume that the people willing to buy any brand likely did. They need to fix that depreciation is what they need to do because Caddy's depreciate mindblowingly badly.
FairlightRacing 11:40AM (8/18/2009)
But wouldn't that also mean those buying imports are "hardcore import car drivers"? That was a stupid statement on the part of Claes to think that it doesn't cut both ways. Anyone who can't see the difference between GM products from 2000, or even 2004, and today is f_cking clueless.
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Avinash machado 11:15AM (8/18/2009)
So may surveys. JP Power,CR,TrueDelta, and the Michigan University survey.
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MadeinDetroit 11:39AM (8/18/2009)
Not sure I'd consider TrueDelta in the same class as those established names, but yes lots of surveys all trying to say look at me!
Gardiner Westbound 11:39AM (8/18/2009)
Decades of bad designs, shoddy quality, and deplorable owner relations sparked a Detroit-3 customer revolt. Notwithstanding claims of world class quality every long-term reliability, durability and warranty claim survey confirms domestic vehicles are markedly inferior to class leading competitors. Ten years of satisfactory repair indexes are needed to restore consumer confidence. An honest 10-year factory warranty would make it go away, but there isn't one.
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The Other Bob 12:15PM (8/18/2009)
"...every long-term reliability, durability and warranty claim survey confirms domestic vehicles are markedly inferior to class leading competitors. "
Thanks for spewing the common anti-Detroit meme. Good work. Its not true, but a common held beleif.
Many American cars have done very well on long-term durablity studies, often better than the short term studies, even over the last 10 years.
AngeloD 12:45PM (8/18/2009)
Notwithstanding claims of world class quality every long-term reliability, durability and warranty claim survey confirms domestic vehicles are markedly inferior to class leading competitors.
Sorry, but your comment is absolute BS. You simply don't have a clue as to what your talking about. Many American brands, Buick for one example, have ranked at or near the top of the ratings lists for decades. Check out Consumer Report's customer-subscriber rankings for something as regularly derided as the Lincoln Town Car. It gets a nearly perfect score year after year.
mortonb11 2:43PM (8/18/2009)
@ westbound
its funny that JD Power says the exact opposite saying that buick is basically the most dependable car in the world....but im sure your more reliable source than they are.
daleam 1:35PM (8/18/2009)
Six American brands rated "above average".
Six Japanese brands rated "above average".
Four "other country" brands rated "above average".
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?id=2009043
Check previous years and you get similar results:
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2008115
http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2007130
Plenty of American brands have proven for many years that they are worthy of consideration compared to the competition. By the way, did you notice poor little Scion there near the bottom of the list? Obviously, Toyota has their problems too.
Gardiner Westbound 2:03PM (8/18/2009)
We're breaking new ground in business economics and merchandixing theory here! The bottom line is excellent products and excessive numbers of people wanting to buy them at profitable prices rocketed GM into bankruptcy and needing government bailouts.
mortonb11 3:11PM (8/18/2009)
@ westbound
Again your completely uneducated on the subject (as many are) Toyota and honda, among others are begging for their own government bailouts now, and received money before GM ever got any. Do we hear about it?...NO because they are not asking our governments for cash, they are asking theirs. Nobody is saying GM hasn't made mistakes in the past, but the arguments most people make now are unfounded.
daleam 4:12PM (8/18/2009)
mortonb11 - How foolish of you to allow the facts to cloud your judgement. ;-)
junk-o 3:30PM (8/19/2009)
@ Gardiner
Wow, looking over your past posts, all you do is bash domestics any chance you get. You drive a Hyundai, don't ya?!?!
Go post somewhere else, you are providing nothing useful to this website.