Ford, GM brands top customer satisfaction survey for first time ever

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The painful years of restructuring appear to be paying off for at least two of the Big Three automakers.

For the first time ever, Ford’s Lincoln Mercury and GM’s Buick received the highest customer satisfaction rankings among all automakers, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index released Tuesday. The ACSI measures customer sentiment about a number of products and industries, including this annual auto survey.

The results offer one more piece of evidence that U.S. automakers are starting to see the payoff from years of painful layoffs, corporate restructuring and quality improvements.

But the two carmakers also benefited from the series of recalls that have plagued Toyota and its luxury brand, Lexus, said Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI study and a professor of business administration at the University of Michigan. Both the Japanese brands saw their customer satisfaction ratings fall this year, creating an opportunity for the American brands.

“No doubt they’re benefiting from (the recalls), but they’re also doing more things right,” Fornell said.

Still, the survey — which has tracked customer satisfaction with vehicle brands since 1995 — was a bittersweet victory. Overall, customers were less satisfied with all vehicle makers than they were last year, when the Cash for Clunkers and other incentive programs generated a lot of good deals, and goodwill.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38728811/ns/business-autos/

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