I’m sure this headline will get Mopar fans’ backs up, but it’s the cold-hard truth: the American Consumer Satisfaction Index rated the Chrysler brand lowest of all automotive brands, with Jeep and Dodge tied with Mazda for second-to-last place. And though the graph above shows historical scores, the latest rating is based on interviews with US consumers in the second quarter of this year. Hit the jump for a graph of the latest ratings, but first check out those historical scores. I’m not generally a fan of this kind of survey, as exemplified by the infamous JD Power “Initial Quality” survey, but the most dramatic line on this jumbled graph, belonging to Hyundai, matches that brand’s sales progress amazingly closely. That tells me this “satisfaction index” says something about how well each brand serves its intended customer… which, as Hyundai proves, can (but doesn’t always) lead to sales growth. The counter-example: Cadillac has long been a top contender, even when it sold less-than-entirely-competitive products and was losing sales. With that in mind, let’s take a look at this year’s results.
I didn’t mean to lump the “loser” brands off to the left there, but losers they pretty clearly are… at least according to the ACSI’s criteria. Kia is unsurprisingly towards the bottom of this rating, which ACSI admits favors premium vehicles, with Chevrolet next and Hyundai, GMC and BMW (!) tied up in the next tier. The big surprise according to AN [sub]’s write-up, was Toyota which tied for first with Cadillac and Lexus. The highest-ranked mass-market brand, Toyota seems to have shaken off any effects the unintended acceleration scandal may have had in the minds of consumers. Of course, like fleet sales, incentives, this index is only one small part of what it takes to understand the market… but its results are certainly provocative.
I would think the big losers are Acura and Infiniti, which have ceased to exist. Or are they ‘all other brands,’ languishing in Kia land?
Is this the case of some manufacturers, Honda and Nissan, combining their luxury brands with their regular brands, but others, Audi and Ford, making a distinction when reporting results?
Well, that’s somebody’s idea of effectively conveying information.
Yeah those charts make me scratch my head a bit and I deal with data all day long. Charts and graphs should make information easier to understand, not harder.
I suppose we can be glad it wasn’t rendered in grey-scale. Some of those lines were so hidden I couldn’t tell what was going on.
Yes, the best and easiest to understand charts should use thin lines of similar colors to represent different brands and have all the lines override each other in a sloppy mess. Seriously, who the hell made this goddamn graph.
Wow, for that first graph, is there no curve-fit function available? It would still probably be a mess, but a less disorderly mess me thinks.
So from 0-100, everyone is lumped in at 76-87? These charts shows more of how much closer they are than apart.
Well, this is 5 minutes I’ll never get back.
I think the 1st graph couldn’t be more messy.
What’s that? Spaghetti?
Just saw a story on the Weather Channel, of all places, saying that the American automakers have such bad customer satisfaction that they’re likely to forfeit the market share gains they’ve made from the Japanese Tsunami.
That first chart is useless, the second should have better color separation too many of the colors are similar, very confusing indeed.
What did you expect from a company that produced the PT Cruiser? And is now married to one that made the Multipla?