Customer satisfaction with domestic automobiles showed resilience despite an overall decline for the industry, according to a report released Aug. 17 by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Ann Arbor, Mich.
While overall automobile satisfaction dipped 2.4% from an all-time industry high to a score of 82 on a 0-100 scale, Ford and GM held steady as their Lincoln-Mercury and Buick nameplates took the lead for the first time ever. Chrysler, however, continued to underperform, with two of its three divisions at the bottom.
“It was not long ago when Detroit’s products were clustered at the bottom of the industry,” said Claes Fornell, founder of ACSI and author of The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference. “Although very few automakers improved this year, the domestic ones are either steady or have lost less in customer satisfaction compared to international competition.”
Even though satisfaction with most domestic and foreign automakers declined in 2010, U.S. brands showed the smallest drop, while Japanese and Korean brands fell the most, putting the U.S. slightly ahead of the Japanese and Koreans for the first time since 2000, although both continue to trail European automakers.
The news for the U.S. economy as a whole is not as positive. The national ACSI is unchanged from the first quarter of 2010, but it has dropped slightly from a year ago. Following steep increases just before the economy began to recover, customer satisfaction is now stalling. The overall ACSI score is 75.9, compared with 76.1 in the second quarter of 2009.
Among the individual auto nameplates, Lincoln-Mercury led with a score of 89, its highest ever. Buick remained unchanged at 88. Behind Lincoln and Buick are BMW (−1%), Mercedes-Benz (unchanged) and Cadillac (−3%), all tied at 86, followed by Toyota’s Lexus division, down 5% to 85.
At the other end of the spectrum, Chrysler’s brands dropped below the industry average, with the Chrysler division down 5% to 80, Dodge down 4% to 78 and Jeep at the bottom, falling 3% to 77. Overall, 14 of the 19 largest auto nameplates show some deterioration in customer satisfaction over the past year. Of the few nameplates holding steady or improving, Nissan makes the biggest gain, up 5% to match the industry average at 82 and rebounding from a similar drop a year ago. GMC shows a smaller improvement, up 2% to 84.