Study Shows 1.2% Increase in Consumer Satisfaction

An annual report released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index revealed that the US consumer satisfaction with vehicles globally has increased. The overall consumer satisfaction with the auto industry has climbed 1.2 percent from 2010 to 83. Worth mentioning that the index was graded on a 0-100 scale. The index has been measuring consumer satisfaction with the auto industry since 1994.

On the top of the list, Cadillac, Lexus and Toyota held the top spots in the 2011 rankings with scores of 87. Aside from Cadillac’s 1.2 percent increase , which boosted it to the top of the rankings, the Detroit 3 fell short compared to foreign, as Lincoln, Buick, GMC and Chrysler lost favor with customers.

Also Lincoln and Buick, which took the number one and number two spots in last year rankings both fell 3, 4 percent. Furthermore, the two fell down from a record high in 2010 when Ford was still associated with Mercury as a single entity in the study.

"Production challenges for Japanese automakers provided an opportunity for Detroit to increase both market share and earnings, but declining customer satisfaction will make it difficult to sustain these gains as the Japanese companies begin to recover,” Claes Fornell, creator of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and author of The Satisfied Customer was quoted as saying by autoweek.com.

Each brand’s score is based on a sample of 250 telephone interviews with consumers. According to the study there are more than 70,000 interviews made every year.