Andaluz

UK 2006 JD Power/WhatCar? Satisfaction Survey - British-built means best-built



Introduction

While Japanese brands continue to dominate the customer satisfaction rankings, four of the top 10 most-satisfying models are built in Britain, according to the J.D. Power and Associates/What Car? magazine 2006 Car Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) study released today. The Honda Civic, Toyota Avensis, Toyota Corolla and Jaguar S-Type, which are all built in Britain, rank within the top 10 models in the study, while British brands Mini and Jaguar rank within the top 10 nameplates.

Skoda, BMW and Volvo represent the remaining European brands in the top 10. Luxury Japanese brand Lexus tops the rankings for a sixth consecutive year, with a customer satisfaction score of 873 index points from a possible 1000-point.

Movers and shakers

With a 25-point increase from the 2005 study, Lexus also attains the award for the most-improved brand in 2006. Honda (848), Skoda (842) and Toyota (838) follow Lexus in the rankings, and Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Subaru also show strong improvement in overall customer satisfaction.

Lexus also builds the highest-ranking model in the study, the Lexus IS (868 points). The Honda Jazz, which ranked highest in 2004 and 2005, follows the IS at 861 points. With an increase of 48 index points from 2005, the Suzuki Liana (856) ranks third overall. Those that show the greatest improvement in satisfaction with dealer service include Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Volkswagen and Subaru.

How the study works

The 2006 JD Power/WhatCar? Study is based on the evaluations of nearly 15,000 UK car owners after an average of two years of ownership. The study includes 30 brands and 105 models. Owners provide detailed evaluations of their vehicles and dealers, which covers 77 attributes grouped into four measurements of satisfaction. In order of importance, they are:

• Quality and Reliability (30%)
• Vehicle Appeal (28%) - includes performance, design, comfort and features
• Dealer Service Satisfaction (22%)
• Ownership Costs (19%), which includes fuel consumption, insurance and costs of service/repair.

Source: http://www.whatcar.com/news-special-...197&EL=3160618

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This is only a "teaser", more detailed results will be available shortly and posted here.

mleskovar

Skoda ranked above Toyota This survey has no credibility. Also, when you're at the bottom, improvement is only relative.

Jayhawk

Sales are also UP!

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...01/009375.html

Andaluz

Why are you surprised???

Last year, Skoda ranked in 2nd place just below Lexus in 2005 Top Gear's J.D Power satisfaction survey.

Skoda also ranked above Toyota in the same survey. Mind you, Skoda is a Volkswagen brand.

mleskovar

I'm surprised they were still being made. I must have the old view of 'Skoda quality' (oxymoron ). No, I didn't know they are VW owned now. I guess anything can be fixed.

1985mb

MB can downsize their whole PR dept now that this survey is out... they're quite redundant now

benzmodz

Maybe if they gave them all spanners .......

You can't continue to have record sales volumes and as in Australia restrict access to diagnostic tools for these modern cars.

What tends to happen is that the dealers, who have these tools, are the only ones trusted to work on these cars. So the service is generally quite average.

The other problem is that being a C-class owner means that your serious problems don't even get looked at and are just ignored completely. Hard to claim customer service if you dont get any at all !

Jayhawk

There are a LOT of trolls on this forum that are here only because they hate MB.

Musikmann

I chose to buy a Mercedes because of it's superior german engineering, and I LOVE it! I really don't care what Consumer's Reports and J.D. Powers think of them. If I did, I suppose I would buy a Lexus, or one of their other more highly rated cars.

I happen to have an old Toyota (1991 Camry - LX - 6-cyliner w/90k) that belonged to my deceased father. Although I have it largely due to sentimental reasons, it has proven to be a good vehicle, and I use it as one of my work cars.

My other work car is a 1994 Plymouth Acclaim w/140k. I still have that partly because it is the only NEW car I've ever bought. It has also proven to be very dependable.

My point is this: Buy a Mercedes for prestige, enjoyment, or simply to have a car that will cruise along all day at 100mph and will protect you if you crash up at that speed.

M

mleskovar

I'll second that. I complain a lot about my car's quality but I keep it.