Jaguar tops Power Customer Service Index

Jim Henry
Automotive News
July 19, 2007 - 11:01 am

Jaguar dealerships may not be selling many cars these days. But they are wowing U.S. service customers, as Jaguar is the top brand in this year's Customer Service Index from J.D. Power and Associates.

Lexus Division, which led last year's study, dropped into a tie for third with Cadillac. Buick was No. 2 in the 2007 study, which Power released today.

The CSI study measures customers' satisfaction with their dealership service experiences. Jaguar also was No. 1 in Power's 2006 Sales Satisfaction Index, which measures customer satisfaction with the sales experience.

In the first six months of 2007, Jaguar's U.S. sales were down 27.4 percent from the year-ago period. But Tom Gauer, Power's senior director of automotive retail research, said Jaguar's top performance in the service and sales studies could stimulate a turnaround.

Other brands in the top 10 of this year's Customer Service Index, in order: Mercury, Saturn, Mini, Lincoln, Pontiac and Infiniti.

The bottom five brands: Isuzu, Suzuki, Volkswagen, Land Rover and Jeep.

Power based the 2007 study on responses compiled between January and April from 84,495 owners and lease customers of cars and trucks built for the 2004 to 2006 model years.