Japanese car companies took the top 3 spots for customer satisfaction in Germany, beating out the Germans on their own turf. In the land of Mercedes and BMW, the Top 10 customer satisfaction rankings go mostly to foreigners. Achtung! Pass the beer stein and welcome to the real world.
JD Power, the auto sales survey people, just reported that Honda topped the list and edged Toyota out by a single point in customer satisfaction among German car owners in Germany.
BMW came in at the number 4 spot and is the top-ranked German model but even they are behind Subaru, who holds the #3 ranking.
The customer satisfaction index (CSI) tracks how satisfied customers are for 27 car brands and 112 individual models in Germany. The results were published on the Web site of Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive News Europe.
German luxury brand Audi came in at #7 and Mercedes came in near the bottom at #8. So in Germany, the Germans are happier with their Honda than their Mercedes. Shucks, they are even happier with a Subaru ... and just think of the money they are saving!
The only thing Volkswagen had to show for itself was winning the "most improved" ranking for this year, jumping to #12 from #23 last year. But then again when you are #23 on a list of 27, there's a lot more room to go up than there is to go down.
And the tail end of the list? That honor goes to Chevrolet at #27 and the cute little Smart car at #26.
Not only do the Japanese manufacturers lead quality surveys and customer satisfaction surveys in the US, they do it in Europe too. That only proves that people are the same pretty much everywhere. When it comes to buying a car, they just want something that runs right and that the manufacturer will stand behind. Hey, Detroit, is that too much to ask for?