Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 6, 1994 TAG: 9407060056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DETROIT LENGTH: Medium
Lexus, Toyota's luxury car line, scored 176 points in the J.D. Power and Associates 1994 Customer Satisfaction Index, which was released Tuesday.
Nissan's Infiniti line was No. 2 with 171 points, and General Motors' Saturn followed with 155 points. Honda's Acura luxury line and Germany's Audi filled out the top five.
The survey of 25,000 buyers of new cars ranked their satisfaction with repairs and reliability, and with how they were handled by dealers during the first year they owned their cars.
A similar report based on a survey of 10,000 light-truck owners was to be released by Power today.
Industry sources said it showed Chrysler and Toyota tied for No.1 in the category, which includes minivans, pickups and sport/utility vehicles. Oldsmobile, Mercury and Plymouth completed the top five in the truck survey, the sources said.
In the car survey, the average score for the industry was 135, unchanged from a year ago. Above that average were five U.S. cars, six Japanese and six European. Fifteen car lines were below the industry average, with Suzuki at the bottom of the list with 108.
General Motors cars averaged 136, the first time in the history of the survey that a U.S. carmaker was higher than the industry average. Chrysler averaged 128 and Ford 125.
``The domestics have increased consistently over the last eight years, and are challenging the Asians as well,'' said J. David Power III, president of the Agoura Hills, Calif., marketing firm.
The Big Three average in 1986 was 94.
Asian brands, including Korea's Hyundai, scored an average of 140, 18 percent higher than in 1986, and the domestic Big Three scored 132, a gain of 51 percent.
The average score for European cars was 139, up 30 percent since 1986.
``We've noticed a trend of improvement on the part of the European manufacturers, both in the quality of the vehicles and in the way the customers are being handled in the dealerships,'' Power said.
Overall improvement for the European brands also reflected that Yugo, Renault, Peugeot and Sterling were no longer sold in the U.S. market. Those cars did not compete well on quality or customer satisfaction and they pulled down the European average in earlier surveys, Power said.
The survey scores are based 60 percent on owners' satisfaction with vehicle repairs and reliability, and 40 percent on how they were handled by dealers.
by CNB