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5 Fiat Chrysler Brands Come in Last in 2015 J.D. Power Customer Service Index

It's no secret that Fiat owners in the US are not happy with their customer service, especially the ones who've bought the 500L, but it seems all the other sister brands from under the Fiat Chrysler umbrella aren't doing any better. A recent survey conducted by J.D. Power suggests people who bought Chryslers, Fiats, Rams, Dodges and Jeeps are among the least happy.
Jeep rated badly in 2015 J.D. Power study 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
The 2015 J.D. Power Customer Service Index basically measures how satisfied people are when they take their cars to dealerships. Ironically, a premium brand like Chrysler was overtaken by Kia, Mazda and even Honda or Nissan.

The results are based on 70,000 owners and lessees of 2010 to 2014 model-year vehicles. All 5 Fiat Chrysler brands were at the very bottom of the least, bellowe Scion. The problem seems to be that some dealerships handle all brands at the same time. Pickup truck sales have increased tremendously over the past few years and all of them need much more frequent servicing than regular cars, which creates a bottleneck that even a €100,000 luxury saloon buyer needs to squeeze through.

"These results are consistent with what we've seen in recent years," said Mike Battaglia, senior director of auto retail at J.D. Power. "They've been underperforming in customer service at dealerships relative to the rest of the industry."

The good news is that the company run by CEO Sergio Marchionne doesn't have to do a lot. Sales have been increasing steadily over the past 5 years and so has market share, which means people love Fiat Chrysler products. But in the long run, if they don't improve customer satisfaction, they stand to lose the very people that are loyal customers right now.

GM, on the other hand, seems to have learned its lessons well. Buick was ranked at the very top of the 2015 J.D. Power Customer Service Index, while GMC and Chevrolet also performed very good. The news comes one month after Buick also came at the top of Consumer Reports' top pics list for the year. The Regal was rated highly for its improved reliability, while the Chevy Impala was named top large car.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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