Yes, J.D. Power reports overall customer satisfaction with the vehicle purchase experience is 801 on a 1,000-point scale, up from 793 a year ago.
But dealers shouldn’t high-five each other yet.
“You would expect inventory and pricing began to normalize,” Stewart Stropp, vice president of automotive retail at J.D. Power tells WardsAuto, referring to inventory increases and other market shifts. “The takeaway for dealers is that we only saw modest improvement in other parts of the sales experience, sales consultants’ inactions, car deliveries, paperwork handling and other key opportunities to optimize the experiences for buyers. In those areas, we saw fractions (of satisfaction) of what we saw in inventory and pricing (satisfaction).”
The report shows that more than half (57%) of buyers say that nine of 10 key performance indicators (KPIs) were met. J.D. Power tells WardsAuto top KPIs include sales consultants completely understanding customer needs, vehicle condition upon delivery and personnel effectively using technology. J.D. Power does not release a full list of KPIs due to confidential study methodology.
While that offers some positives for dealerships, there is still room for improvement, Stropp says. He again stresses that key areas of improvement are inventory and price. That’s not surprising now that only 8% of mass-market buyers pay more than the manufacturer’s price. That is down from 15% a year ago. Only 6% of premium vehicle buyers paid over the manufacturer’s price, down 10% from a year ago.
Other key data points from J.D. Power’s report include:
Battery-electric vehicle buyers are less satisfied than those who buy cars fitted with internal-combustion engines: Although the gap is decreasing, J.D. Power reports BEV buyers are still notably less satisfied. Buyer index satisfaction among mass-market ICE vehicle buyers is 857 but drops to 822 among mass-market BEV buyers – and a similar pattern exists among buyers of premium vehicles.
Dealers should note both mass-market and premium BEV buyers continue to be less satisfied with dealer staff knowledge and expertise. One point some might find surprising is that Tesla buyers, in particular, have markedly lower satisfaction with how effectively vehicle features are explained.
Porsche ranks highest in sales satisfaction among premium brands for a second consecutive year, scoring 851. Infiniti (840) ranks second, and Jaguar (838) ranks third.
Mini ranks highest in sales satisfaction among mass-market brands, scoring 829. Buick (827) ranks second, and Subaru (825) ranks third.
Now in its 39th year, the U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index Study measures satisfaction with the sales experience among new-vehicle buyers and rejecters (those who shop at a dealership and purchase elsewhere).
For more information about this study, click here.
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