A report released today by the University of Michigan reveals that American’s satisfaction with domestic automakers increased in the second quarter of 2007 while many foreign automakers saw a decrease. Taking top honors in the survey was Toyota ’s luxury division, Lexus , scoring an 87 on the 100 point scale, but was followed by a four-way tie for second between Buick , BMW , Cadillac and Lincoln /Mercury, all at 86.
Aside from GMC , who saw no change in satisfaction but remained the next highest rated domestic, tied with Chevrolet at 82, all other GM and Ford marques saw increases in customer satisfaction, according to The Detroit News. Ford, at number 13 in the survey, saw the greatest gain of any automaker, improving by 3.9%, scoring 80 points.
Toyota , Honda , and Hyundai all saw decreases but managed to occupy the third and fourth spots, scoring 84, 84 and 83, respectively. Toyota did however fall the most of any brand, decreasing by 3.4%. Nissan and Mazda also decreased but VW and Kia managed slight increases. The Chrysler brand was the only domestic that didn’t score well. Dodge rose 2.6% to score 80, but Chrysler fell by 1.3% to 79, and the Jeep brand occupied the last spot on the survey at 75 points. The survey average was 82.
While most domestics are still lagging behind Asian brands in customer satisfaction, this does show a significant improvement for Detroit automakers. Just last week, J.D. Power and Associates gave Buick top honors, along with Lexus , in its long-term dependability study. Cadillac and Mercury also scored in the top 5, showing that things are improving for domestic automakers.
