Lincoln Wins Owner-Satisfaction Race Among Luxury Brands

Lincoln wins in a tight race for which auto brand satisfies customers the most.

With a score of 827, Ford’s luxury nameplate ranks highest in the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index study.

But in the premium brand category, Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus and Mercedes-Benz are right behind Lincoln, tying for second with scores of 826.

And in a three-way tie for third, Cadillac, Infiniti (Nissan’s premium brand) and Porsche all score 825.

That’s a two-point spread among six brands. “I’ve been with J.D. Power for 15 years, and I’ve never seen it this close,” Chris Sutton, the company’s vice president-auto retailing, says during a media call.   

The SSI study measures satisfaction with the sales experience among new-vehicle buyers and rejecters (those who shop a dealership and purchase elsewhere).

Buyer satisfaction is based on six factors (in order of importance): delivery process (28%), dealer personnel (21%), working out the deal (19%), paperwork completion (19%), dealership facility (10%) and dealership website (4%).

Rejecter satisfaction is based on five factors: salesperson (28%), price (27%), negotiation (18%), dealership facility (14%) and variety of inventory (13%).

The study is based on responses from 35,816 buyers who purchased or leased their new vehicle from January through June.

Lincoln’s performance in the delivery process is “head and shoulders” above its competitors, Sutton says.

Delivery includes various elements, including how well dealership personnel familiarize customers with their newly purchased vehicles. Of late, there has been a growing trend in home deliveries.

Of the 14 contenders in the premium group, Hyundai’s Genesis luxury brand scores the lowest at 773.

Mini ranks highest in sales satisfaction among mass-market brands with a score of 824, followed by GMC (804) Buick (803), Ford (798) and Subaru (793). Fiat and Chrysler tied for last at 756.

Mini excelled in dealership personnel knowledgeability, Sutton says.

In the age of COVID-19, auto retailing has seen increased consumer use of the internet to conduct parts of the vehicle transaction, he says, adding 44% of those surveyed say they are willing to do some of it online. 

Decreased showroom traffic caused by COVID-19 shutdowns earlier this year in several states fast-tracked dealer adoption of remote-selling capabilities, he says.    

“The trend toward digital retailing moved steadily,” Sutton says. “It fell off a bit in May and June, but it is here to stay.”

It hasn’t hurt customer experience or gross profits. Nor has it bit into F&I business as some dealers had initially feared, although online F&I “still is pretty limited,” he says.

Because buying a vehicle is a relatively complicated transaction, doing parts of it digitally presents challenges, Sutton says. “It is important for dealers to have a process realizing that most customers are going to have questions. They are not going to sail through it without questions.”   

He adds, “The more shoppers are exposed to remote communication and actual online buying options, the more they may prefer these methods in the future over traditional showroom visits to wade through inventory and negotiate.”

Accordingly, he urges dealers to “step up their digital offerings to remain competitive.”

Steve Finlay is a retired WardsAuto senior editor.