Acura’s website ranks highest in usefulness in the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study (MWES)SM—Wave 1. The premium brand website receives a score of 808 (on a 1,000-point scale), and performs particularly well in two of the four index measures: navigation and speed.* Continue reading ›
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Ford remained the best-selling nameplate in August and also the nameplate with the best-selling model in the US market—the F-Series pickup. Ford captured 15.4% of industry sales in August, up from 14.26% a year ago. Brand sales rose 11.7% from August 2010—to 164,843 units. Chevrolet continued to hold onto the second-highest brand share in . . . Continue Reading Ford Brand and F-Series Still Top-Volume Leaders  Ryan Robinson Vehicle owners in Canada are spending less on vehicle maintenance and repairs this year than in 2010, reflecting a continued sluggishness in the country’s automotive market, according to our 2011 Canadian Customer Commitment Index Study, which is based on responses from more than 19,500 owners of 4-to-12-year-old vehicles about their maintenance and repair service experiences. This year, we find that the annual service market for vehicles in this age range has contracted to $8.4 billion from $9.0 billion in 2010, mainly due to a lower average annual spend on service. The average amount spent per vehicle has declined by an average of $23, and for owners of 8-to-12-year-old vehicles, the amount spent on maintenance or repairs has declined the most—by an average of $85—to $736 in 2011 from $821 a year ago. Continue reading ›  Leave a comment  Auto Dealerships, Canada, North American Auto Market, Vehicle Parts and Service  Acura, Aftermarket Facilities, Canada, Customer Retention Rates, Customer Satisfaction, Dealerships, Great Canadian Oil Change, Independent Garages, NAPA AUTOPRO, Oil Change, Repair Shops, Service Advisor, Service Experience, Service Satisfaction, Service Visits, Subaru, Vehicle Maintenance, Vehicle Repairs  Jon Sundberg Honda captures a total of seven model-level initial quality awards—the most of any brand this year, and the most for the Japanese automaker in any given year—according to results of the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Initial Quality StudySM (IQS). Lexus, which receives four model-level awards, is also the brand with the highest-performing model in the industry—the LS. Chevrolet, Ford and Mercedes-Benz receive two awards each, while Cadillac, Chrysler, Dodge and Mazda each receive one award. Continue reading › Leave a comment Auto Dealerships, Automotive Marketing, Initial Quality, North American Auto Market, OEM, Retail, Uncategorized, Vehicle Launch, Vehicle Performance, Vehicle Quality Acura, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Compact, Crossover, Dodge, Ford, Highest-Ranked Models, Honda, Initial Quality, Initial Quality Awards, Japanese Automakers, Land Rover, Lexus, Lexus LS, Mazda, Midsize Car, Midsize Van, Models, MPV, Multi-Purpose Vehicle, Pickup, Porsche, Premium Car, Segments, Sub-Compact Car, SUV, United States
 David Cutting BMW, offering 11 models in the US market, currently is the best-selling luxury, or premium, brand through the first four months of 2011, according to data from our Automotive Forecasting division. BMW’s year-to-date sales through April totaled 71,417 units, which was a 10% improvement over last year’s same time period. The German luxury automaker’s 5 Series midsize premium conventional model posted strong gains for the brand this year—sales rose more than 75%, to 15,986 units vs. 9,111 sales a year ago. Also, the redesigned X3 compact premium crossover (CUV) bolstered the brand’s totals with 7,987 unit sales so far this year. Additionally, all of BMW’s CUV models posted gains this year, while the volume-leading 3 Series, which was the best-selling premium model in the US market, posted a 12% sales decline (26,590 unit sales vs. 30,360 unit sales in 2010). Mercedes-Benz, with a lineup of 15 models in the US new-vehicle market, was very close to its rival BMW, selling just 32 fewer units through the first four months. Mercedes delivered 71,385 premium cars and light trucks in January through April 2011, up 7% from last year’s 66,857 unit deliveries. In addition to being the best-selling luxury brand, the Mercedes C-Class and E-Class passenger cars were among the 10 best-selling luxury models in the United States during this same time frame. The Sprinter van has sold 3,764 units in year-to-date sales, but is not included in the above figures as it is not considered to be a premium model. Continue reading › Leave a comment Auto Dealerships, Auto Finance, Automotive Forecasting, Automotive Marketing, North American Auto Market, OEM, PIN, Vehicle Sales Acura, Audi, Automotive Forecast, BMW, Cadillac, German Brands, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Luxury Vehicle Market, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Premium Sales, RX-Series, United States, Volvo Fourteen of 34 brands included in this year’s U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) outperform or match the overall industry average for problems per 100 vehicles (PP100). Nine of these 14 brands are premium nameplates, while five are non-premium or mass-market brands. David Sargent For the first time in the history of the VDS, . . . Continue Reading Lincoln Ranks Highest Among Brands in Vehicle Dependability Leave a comment Automotive Marketing, North American Auto Market, OEM, Vehicle Dependability, Vehicle Performance, Vehicle Quality Acura, Brands, Buick, Cadillac, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lexus RX, Lincoln, Lincoln MXZ, Lincoln Navigator, Mercedes-Benz, Non-Premium, Porsche, Premium, Suzuki, Toyota, VDS, Vehicle Dependability Jon Osborn Unfortunately, simply following standard processes and procedures during a customer service experience at the dealership will not guarantee high customer service satisfaction scores, according to the 2011 U.S. Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) Study. The real indicator is whether the service advisor follows processes and procedures in a timely and professional manner, . . . Continue Reading Following Best Practices Dramatically Impacts Service Satisfaction J.D. Power finds that overall satisfaction among vehicle owners with dealer service as a whole remained stable and actually improved by 1 point from 2010—averaging 768 points (on a 1,000-point scale) in our latest 2011 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study, which is based on responses from more than 97,300 owners and lessees of 2006 to 2010 model-year vehicles.  Jon Osborn This year, the US auto industry lost one premium and three non-premium brands (Hummer, Saturn, Pontiac and Mercury), and new-vehicle sales have yet to return to the 15+ million-unit annual levels of the past decade, where dealers could rely more on service work for revenue and profit. Yet, even during these tough times, dealer service facilities have been able to gradually build up their share of service visits and spend, especially among customers whose vehicles are under warranty. Between 2007 and 2011, the share of service visits at dealer facilities increased from 67% to 74%. Additionally, since consumers are postponing their new-vehicle purchases and opting to keep their vehicles longer, there is a more pressing need for owners to keep their vehicles well maintained. We do see that current car and light-truck owners are slowly coming back into the market and they are trading in older vehicles compared to a year ago, according to our Power Information Network® (PIN) retail transaction data. In February, for example, the average trade-in vehicle was 6.1 years old, which was up from 5.8 in the same month of 2010. Continue reading › Satisfaction with manufacturer websites among new-vehicle shoppers is higher for users who accessed an automaker’s site through a model page rather than the website’s home page, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Manufacturer Website Evaluation StudySM (MWES)—Wave 1, which examines the usefulness of automotive manufacturer websites during the new-vehicle shopping process by evaluating . . . Continue Reading Satisfaction with Automaker Websites Differs with Point of Entry |
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