ACSI: American Customer Satisfaction Index news
08-26-2014, 06:51 AM
#1
Liquid Ice
Thread Starter
ACSI: American Customer Satisfaction Index news
Fewer incentives and higher expectations dampened shopper spirits, causing vehicle satisfaction levels to dip for a second straight year even as Americans continue buying cars and pickup trucks at a robust pace.
Satisfaction with vehicles bought in the U.S. fell 1.2% to 82 out of a possible score of 100, according to a survey released Tuesday by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The survey covers year-to-date sales through the end of July.
The majority of the 21 brands—including Ford, Subaru and Jeep—fell. Honda Motor Co.'s Acura brand led the group, falling 7%, followed by General Motors Co.'s Cadillac, with a 6% decline, and GMC with a 4% dip.
Buick and Chevrolet were the only brands to show an increase in customer satisfaction.
"There is a lot going on in the area of big incentives," said Forrest Morgeson, director of research. "Many of the car companies are getting rid of those deals to improve profitability. That is weighing on the customer satisfaction."
Auto makers have for years attempted to balance incentives with sales. Following the recession and bankruptcies of Chrysler Group LLC and GM in 2009, many car companies are no longer offering the discounts and cash back customers had become accustomed to seeing.
Although recent reports suggest auto makers are turning to incentives to drive Labor Day sales, the discounts and cash back still remain far below the offers made before the recession.
Meanwhile, sales continue remain brisk this year with the seasonally-adjusted annualized selling rate coming in at 16.5 million at the end of July, compared with 15.8 million for the same time period a year earlier.
The National Automobile Dealers Chief Economist Steven Szakaly expects 2014 sales of 16.4 million new vehicles, rising to 16.8 million vehicles in 2015.
Leading the group in high customer satisfaction was Daimler's Mercedes-Benz with a score of 86, followed by Subaru at 85 and Toyota Motor Co.'s Lexus brand tying Volkswagen VOW3.XE -0.06% at 84.
The bottom three finishers were Acura at 77, followed by Dodge at 78, with Jeep and Audi tied at 79.
08-26-2014, 07:07 AM
#2
Liquid Ice
Thread Starter
Not sure how reliable the American Customer Satisfaction Index is - but wow, big drop for Acura. This only covers till July so TLX is not included with this obviously, but I wonder if the new model MDX may have caused some of the dissatisfaction? On the MDX forum there have been a lot of complaints on build quality (hopefully I won't have too many issues with my wife's new MDX).
Admittedly - according to this survey, everyone's results dropped except for Buick (1.2%), Chevrolet (3.8%), VW (0%) and Kia (0%) - every other manufacturer listed decreased.
http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?opt...rt=ChangeAnual
Admittedly - according to this survey, everyone's results dropped except for Buick (1.2%), Chevrolet (3.8%), VW (0%) and Kia (0%) - every other manufacturer listed decreased.
http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?opt...rt=ChangeAnual
Last edited by LiQiCE; 08-26-2014 at 07:09 AM.
08-26-2014, 03:02 PM
#3
Racer
That is somewhat troubling for me to read. Dead last behind every other manufacturer? That's an embarrassment for the brand and to Honda. For Honda to be a top contender in each auto category it produces cars in, the similar investment in Acura to be a serious player in the luxury market doesn't seem to be there. I think management of Acura should in the hot seat and should rescope what they envision the brand to be in the United States. Low customer satisfaction leads to low sales and impact to resale value.
11-16-2021, 01:58 PM
#6
Race Director
The American Customer Satisfaction Index reports that overall satisfaction scores for automakers stayed constant between 2020 and 2021. That's good news, but a look at the past five years suggests that customer satisfaction in new vehicles isn't as high as it once was. Back in 2017, the average score was 82 on a 100-point scale; for 2021 the average sits at 78.
Let's get to the numbers, broken out by mainstream brands and luxury brands:
"Over the last few years, luxury automakers’ satisfaction lead over mass-market manufacturers has been slowly eroding. That gap is now almost nonexistent," David VanAmburg, managing director at ACSI, said in a statement. "In terms of style points and cool factor, luxury vehicles may still have the edge, but if you remove all the bells and whistles, the two are more similar than not."
Not surprisingly, vehicle owners who received a recall notification in 2021 reported a lower satisfaction score (76) than those who went recall free (80). European brands had the highest average scores at 79, followed by Japanese and Korean brands at 78 and American brands at 77.
Breaking the numbers down further, mass-market-brand owners gave the highest scores in categories like Safety, Dependability, Driving Performance, Exterior, Comfort and Interior while scoring the Warranty, Gas Mileage and Technology categories poorly. On the luxury side, owners were most satisfied with Comfort, Interior, Safety Driving Performance and Exterior. The category that scored the worst was Gas Mileage.
The ACSI scores were calculated based on interviews with 4,888 customers who were chosen at random.
Let's get to the numbers, broken out by mainstream brands and luxury brands:
American Customer Satisfaction Index: Mass-market nameplates
- Honda (82)
- Subaru (81)
- Ram (80)
- Hyundai (79)
- Mazda (79)
- Toyota (79)
- Dodge (78)
- Ford (78)
- GMC (78)
- Nissan (78)
- Buick (77)
- Kia (77)
- Volkswagen (77)
- Chevrolet (76)
- Jeep (76)
- Mitsubishi (71)
- Chrysler (70)
American Customer Satisfaction Index: Luxury nameplates
- BMW (81)
- Lexus (81)
- Audi (80)
- Tesla (80)
- Mercedes-Benz (78)
- Cadillac (77)
- Volvo (77)
- Acura (76)
- Lincoln (76)
- Infiniti (75)
"Over the last few years, luxury automakers’ satisfaction lead over mass-market manufacturers has been slowly eroding. That gap is now almost nonexistent," David VanAmburg, managing director at ACSI, said in a statement. "In terms of style points and cool factor, luxury vehicles may still have the edge, but if you remove all the bells and whistles, the two are more similar than not."
Not surprisingly, vehicle owners who received a recall notification in 2021 reported a lower satisfaction score (76) than those who went recall free (80). European brands had the highest average scores at 79, followed by Japanese and Korean brands at 78 and American brands at 77.
Breaking the numbers down further, mass-market-brand owners gave the highest scores in categories like Safety, Dependability, Driving Performance, Exterior, Comfort and Interior while scoring the Warranty, Gas Mileage and Technology categories poorly. On the luxury side, owners were most satisfied with Comfort, Interior, Safety Driving Performance and Exterior. The category that scored the worst was Gas Mileage.
The ACSI scores were calculated based on interviews with 4,888 customers who were chosen at random.
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