Auto Customer Satisfaction: Discountinued Pontiac And Saturn Do Well

J. D. Power and Associates released its new 2009 sales satisfaction index. The survey covers responses from 48,000 people and “is measured for five factors: dealership facility; salesperson; paperwork/finance process; delivery process; and vehicle price.” Of the 38 brands included in the study, 29 have improved from 2008.

Ford’s (NYSE:F) Mercury division won the “mass market” car category, but ironically GM’s discontinued brands Pontiac and Saturn did very well. Pontiac ranked at the same level as Buick.

Among other mass market cars Toyota (NYSE:TM) got relatively poor ratings as did VW and Nissan. The Ford brand and Chevrolet did well.

Among luxury cars, Jaguar, which Ford sold to Tata Motors, ranked first. Cadillac, Lexus, and Lincoln did well. Infiniti, Volvo, and Audi got worse ratings.

It says something about the judgment of car company executives when many of the most highly rated brands are being closed or have been sold.

One of the elements of the car sales process that can be controlled by dealer management to help sales is service. It turns out that impressing customers is not a strength of most dealerships. Powers reports that “automotive brands, on average, are losing 12 percent of buyers to competitors due to poor customer treatment.” This means that manufacturers are doing a mediocre job controlling the enviroment at the locations that sell their products. “The study finds that more than one in five shoppers who leave a dealership without purchasing a vehicle do so because they experienced poor treatment or dealer performance issues such as pricing games, sales pressure tactics or discourteous treatment.”

Douglas A. McIntyre