Detroit 3 score higher on customer satisfaction

[SpartanDem]

Source: Detroit Free Press

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Despite anemic car and truck sales, all three Detroit automakers are doing a better job of pleasing customers than a year ago, according to the 2009 American Customer Satisfaction Index results being issued today.

Ford Motor Co. led the way, continuing a string of upbeat quality reports. Ford's ACSI scores, up 5% this year, have risen a total of 10% over four years, the second-best jump in that short a span since the annual surveys began in 1994.

Only a 19% spurt by Hyundai from 1999 to 2001 was more dramatic. The Korean carmaker "had a good run from being a cheap, low-quality car to still a fairly cheap but high-quality car," said Claes Fornell, a professor who heads the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan, which does the ACSI study.

Chrysler, GM post gains

Chrysler's overall satisfaction scores jumped 4% and General Motors' by 2% this year. If GM's discontinued Saturn and Pontiac brands were excluded, the company's gain would have been comparable to Ford's, Fornell said.

Among major Asian brands, Honda showed a 2% gain, Toyota was unchanged and Nissan dropped 5% to an industry low.



Read more: http://freep.com/article/20090818/COL06/908180372/1322/Detroit-3-score-higher-on-customer-satisfaction

[Vidar]

1. Good for them.