Customer Satisfaction Leans Luxury, Domestic

The University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index for 2007 was released today and identifies some interesting trends about how happy buyers are with their car purchases. This year, Lexus led the way with a score of 87, compared to the average of 82. Four other companies tied with a score of 86: Buick, Cadillac, Lincoln/Mercury (both owned by Ford) and BMW.

Toyota dropped three points from 87 to 84. The survey suggests that poor customer service and a number of recalls over the past year are to blame for the fall. Rounding out the bottom of the list is Jeep, which scored a lowly 75. Dodge and Chrysler were also both below average at 80 and 79, respectively.

Besides the success of its Lincoln and Mercury nameplates, Ford also saw the largest improvement, moving up three points to 80.

Full List of ASCI Scores
Car Buyers Give Toyota Lexus Top Score (BusinessWeek)

Comments

[J]

I have to agree with the Toyota's poor service.

I got a friend who bought her first car, a used Toyota(99), it was bought in 02, and it started to rust in 03; the service manager didn't even bother to tell her that it is under rust warranty. And they always have an attitude when denying their costly maintenance, because we know a technician that costs half, and the work is done as good.

[dave]

Ah, nice.

Suck it, Japanese brands (except Lexus, they won).

[bj wilson]

Ahhhh.....I have 2 agree with Toyotas poor quality issue.

I have bought a Toyota Camry 2003 model used from a Toyota dealership and they said that it is certified and has a nice warranty and that i have peace of mind, but after two weeks of driving it, the timing belt started screeching and the brake lights did not work. They giv me an attitude and say that the camry has no problems.

No problems is a nice way to get rid of fixing the toyota problem.

[LM]

Ah here comes the Toyota bashing. I wonder how much Ford and GM pays people to bash Toyota. If you have a problem with a car, there is this thing called customer service which you can call and they will try and fix the problem. As with anything else, if you don't like service in one location you simply go to another.

Dealerships are not owned by Toyota and US laws prohibit manufacturers from selling vehicles directly, where the manufacturer would be able to control service quality. If you have a problem with dealer service, take it up with the dealer and don't blame the manufacturer.

[Dan]

LM-
One could also ask how much Toyota and Honda pay people to bash Ford and GM. The reality is that your assertion is silly at best. People who are upset with their experiences will often loudly make them known any opportunity they get. Turning to customer service isn't an option, because it is customer service with which they are having issues.

Problems with Toyota's service departments have become a common complaint around the country and around the internet. The numbers are sufficiently large as to make it reasonable to assume they are systematic. Sure, dealerships are not owned by the manufacturers, but they are licensed by them, and there is a non-trivial quantity of influence and control they can assert over them. Poorly performing dealerships have, in the past, been reigned in by different manufacturers, either by suspension of licenses, or by sending auditors to oversee everything from finances to customer satisfaction reports. Clearly this hasn't been done to the extent it should have over at Toyota. How it started is hard to say. Perhaps the service technicians just got rusty from rarely having to deal with anything. :) However, in order to maintain the high standard people expect from them, they should have put considerable resources into solving these issues the instant they showed up. But, they didn't, and now it's starting to catch up with them. I'm sure by now they've gotten the message. The test now becomes how quickly they can turn this around, and if they'll suffer from the same lingering public perceptions that haunt the domestic automakers to this day.

[sulli]

Well said Dan.

[Infosaur]

So anyone who bashes Toyota is a paid shill?

What does that make LM?

The problem is not with Toyota CARS as much as it is with Toyota STAFF. They believe their own press clippings so much that they feel like you should humble yourself before them to buy a Toyota. That kind of arrogance will lead to long term problems. How long term? When's the last time LM drove a Ford?

[DodgeFan]

I remember reading that Toyota is starting to tackle this problem. But obvious not all dealerships have been hit yet. Chyrsler did the same thing with its five star program. Domestics just have already gone through this.

[Brian E]

Anybody know why Lexus is split out from Toyota, but Acura and Infiniti aren't split out from Honda and Nissan?

[Peter]

Toyota dealerships are like apathetic, dysfunctional and arrogant government departments, and Toyota's corporate customer service is the Department Of Denial.

After you leave the showroom you become The Enemy, and their warranties are worthless because they push back on everything. You are on your own.

Toyota's plummeting quality control and poor customer service is finally hitting the scoreboards.

Nobody paid me to say this. I'm quite happy to say it for free. I earned it by being unfortunate enough to have bought a new Toyota.

[sulli]

Brian, I was wondering that too. My guess is that the geniuses at toyota's marketing and development (not saying that sarcastically at all) want to put some distance between Lexus and Toyota. Even the glass on lexus cars says lexus- not toyota. On infiniti's it says nissan motors, lincoln ford motor co., etc. I'm not sure about Acura. Nissan should follow Toyota's lead with this- Infiniti would be near the top of this list, if not at the top, if it weren't grouped in with all the volume nissan dealerships.