From personal experience with dealerships:

Best: Hyundai
Worst: Pontiac

Wow, Honda holds strong among such classy names as Lexus and BMW. And yet Mercedes seems to die more and more each year.

<3 my mustang.

I got to say, as a lexus owner, they are amazing to drive, and the dealer/service is awesome to work with.

Probably doesn't help that the domestic brands often have older dealerships, with decades behind them, and a state legislator or two in the family, and more of a sense of invulnerability and entitlement.

The only time you're going to hear about people getting more bullshit from a dealer is if they're selling cars that sell themselves. (Like BMW and Honda, where the cars can make up for the dealers)

I keep seeing these commericals for Dodge trucks and SUVs with discounts from 22% to 40%. Ouch. I guess making the crappiest gas guzzlers in the industry doesn't help one bit selling them.

@Bladefist: Ordinary Toyotas are awesome. I can sort of imagine what driving Toyota's version of the Cadillac would be like.

Umm Cadillac and Chevy are the same company. This makes me question this the accuracy survey or least the intelligence of those surveyed.

I have worked at 2 dealerships, one import, one domestic. It is the difference between night and day, with the import (Subaru) being the best as far as customer service and limited service issues. GM stinks.

Say what you want about American cars. You can have my Chevy truck when you pry my cold, dead corpse from behind its wheel.

I was always very, very impressed with the Hyundai dealer.

Unfortunately my Elantra forced me to go there for at least once a month on average.

And it'll never correct. Even the few standout models can't salvage US brands precisely because they are exceptions. Even if every US car magically became "good", it would take a generation to change market perception. Toyota didn't get where they are by making a few reliable vehicles, so even if they have problems with a V6 or two, it doesn't compare to the dying misery that is the Big Three.

Let's see. Concentrate on quarterly results, neglect quality and style for 25yrs, maintain hope that cushy govt programs and tax incentives will turn the ship, nurture reliance on same programs such that your product line is completely out of line with true resource availability. Great recipe, guys.

The only thing worse is the 25yrs of spineless and corrupt govt that gave away the store.

@transzoo: It's kind of like flying coach class and business class. You've spent $50,000 on a car, they're probably going to take better care of you/make sure you're satisfied more than if you were to buy a $10,000 Cobalt.

I just don't understand how Kia is always so low. We've had five now in my extended family, and have always enjoyed the build quality (earliest is 1998, Sephia, [Old] Sportage, [New] Sportage, Rio, Sedona). My '98 Sephia had some problems (ate brake rotors faster than pads) but it was always under warranty and they eventually replaced the entire braking system with the newly designed one (a few months after my dealer did this, a recall/coupon did come out).

"and it mostly has to do with high gas prices, and American car companies having built so many trucks."

This person writes for a car blog? My Mazda(90), Honda and Toyota are not in the shop 1/2 as much as the domestic vehicles that I have had. That is more of a reason that they are ranked above domestic vehicles.

@RevRagnarok: First Kia, love the car (Optima), hated every dealership I've dealt with so far. (The first one where I bought it, then the one in the city we moved to that we went to for a couple oil changes).

@transzoo: Nope, no mistake. Cadillacs dealers are usually independent entities.

A vast majority of the folks who I've talked to personally who have sworn off domestic brands seem to have their biggest beef with the dealer network. Usually it stems from the way a service appointment was handled, ranging from a dealer trying to claim the problem with the vehicle was the fault of the owner and therefore not covered under warranty or failure to fix/diagnose a problem with the vehicle correctly the first time. By the time the manufacturer representatives get involved in a case, the owner is so pissed off that many people have made up their minds to sell the car as soon as it is fixed or replaced.

But as was alluded to earlier, the dealer franchise laws in most states prevent manufacturers from owning any significant portion of a dealership and therefore doesn't have very much say in how the operation is run. There are standards they are supposed to meet, but unless they get a ton of complaints about a dealer, punitive action against a wayward dealership is usually non-existent.

We bought a dodge truck with a pretty large price tag. It has been the biggest lemon I have ever owned. Every expensive break down was a known issue Dodge let go out the door and refuses to cover under any warranty or recall.

I will never buy another American car.

My roomate had a 99 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and their Jeep service center was about the worst thing EVER.... After getting over $4k in repairs from him b/ they didn't know how to fix the security system problem they said that was just the begenning.. YOu know what he did, he traded the car in and got a VW that weeeknd.. After 4k? that's just the begenning are you kidding?

@transzoo: so are lexus and toyota..

"car manufacturers essentially have no control over the customer service that you experience at the dealership"

I think that's garbage. Manufacturers could easily control the quality of customer service if they wanted to. They could do this by offering financial incentives to dealerships who have high satisfaction ratings. They would measure QA by sending out surveys to customers asking them what their experiences were. Those dealerships that consistently have poor customer service should be threatened with revocation their franchise.

But of course car manufacturers aren't going to do this because it's in their financial interest to have lots of dealerships and visibility. Car makers are going to make money regardless of whether or not a dealership has crappy C.S. From what I've seen, the quality of a car sells itself, without any help from a salesman at a dealership.

The bottom 5 are also some of the least profitable brands on the market. Lexus and BMW have a lot more cash, because their cars are so much more profitable to manufacture and sell.
Luxury cars are higher margin products than typical economy cars or pickups, and as for Honda and Toyota, their employees are paid far less... so of course these companies will have more revenue to spend on customer service than their low ranking competition.

They also come with crappy cars so maybe it is just standardization.

I would have to agree with Lexus being at the top, My first car was an IS 300 and the service was always superb, I still regret getting my Acura TL, the car is ok but the dealership is awful. If I've wouldn't of wrecked it I would still have it.

"It's actually just that consumers aren't happy with American cars - and it mostly has to do with high gas prices, and American car companies having built so many trucks."

Built too many trucks? They couldn't build them fast enough not long ago... Compare the fuel standards required by most of the other industrialized nations with the US, compare the fuel pricing policies of the other industrialized nations with the US, compare the whole cultural approach of the other industrialized nations with the Individual At All Cost and "Government Is The Problem" approach in the US.

Any of you old enough to have lived through the "Oil Shocks" of the prior century? Maybe you read about it in school. Any person who is surprised by this has not been paying attention.

This doesn't really tell me anything when you average out all these different dealerships. The best dealership (out of about 15 in 3 different states) I've been to was a Ford dealership. The 2nd worst dealership was another Ford dealership.

The worst by far was Hendrick Dodge in Cary, NC. SCAM-ALERT!

I love my 2001 Accord, and will gladly send everyone and anyone to the dealership - Price Honda in Dover, Delaware. I live within 10 miles of two other dealers, but drove about 60 miles to get to this one. There is no bull, no overselling of extras, and we left with my car in about 90 minutes.

He also notes that car manufacturers essentially have no control over the customer service that you experience at the dealership

BS. You can't just open a car dealership with a major brand name on it, those dealerships are all franchises and if the franchisee steps out of line, the parent company can smack them down for it. I know I read an article not so long ago of a scammy dealership whose ownership or management was replaced by the parent company. I just can't find the article now. Anyone else recall this?

@DrJimmy: You can have my Ford Explorer when you pry my charred, burning, upside-down corpse from behind the wheel.

I had a ford car and the service was awful. I hated having to deal with them. Then they got this whole new management and told me how much better it was going to be, guess what, awful.

I then got a Honda 6 years ago and had nothing but good things with the service guys. A year ago I bought a new Honda. I still get great service.

@Quatre707: And Honda and Toyota?

The thing is, companies are not unprofitable just because they don't sell to the premium market. They're unprofitable because consumers don't trust them.

You're applying cause-effect the wrong way.

Sweet! I just bought a Chevy...

this came as a surprise - love my jeep, just not the shady (independent used) dealership i bought it from. i don't equate the two.

@hc5duke: But anecdotal evidence tells you even less. If we go only by best-worst, then I can tell you this:

The best dealership is: A Ford. Tied by a toyota, a lexus, a cadillac, a pontiac, a chevrolet, a bmw, a volvo, a mercedes, a kia, a saturn, a honda, an acura, etc etc etc.

The worst dealership is: A Ford. Tied by a toyota, a lexus, a cadillac, a pontiac, a chevrolet, a bmw, a volvo, a mercedes, a kia, a saturn, a honda, an acura, etc etc etc.

By moving to averages, you're talking about how likely it is for you to get good products/service.

A good analogy would be: Everything else being equal, would you purchase from an ebay seller with 90% or a 10%? Both have people saying they were awesome, both have people saying they were awful.

I wonder how much sales they generate just from gift cards? I am constantly receiving starbucks gift cards and only use them so that they don't go to waste. It seems like the "default" gift card for many occasions.

@britne: Well, an independent used car salesman is one thing. However, most people would (correctly) relate their car purchase with their dealership. There's a reason the building they got their car from had their car's brand on huge letters.

When you purchase a new car, there's an expectation of mainteinance and service into it's future. These satisfaction indexes rate how good the car has been to own. That includes the car's performance, reliability and dealership efficiency.

In my experience, Lexus is my #1, then Toyota and then Nissan. Those Nissan salesmen don't leave you alone-even 8mos after you've already bought a car at another dealership!

Buying a car-Toyota guys were rude, at times watching the football game instead of dealing w/ customer, but service dept was nice.

@TechnoDestructo: You're from Carson City, right? Just throw in a spoiled cheerleader daughter and you have that town pegged.

So now in addition to building better cars, Detroit has to provide better customer service? They should just give up right now.

I have worked at a few dealerships as a mechanic and they push the customer satisfaction angle like crazy but it seems like salesmen get a pass. I do have to say that most salesmen I have met fully reinforce the horrible reputations they already have. so many of them are just outright scumbags that will tell the customer whatever it takes to make a sale, even if it screws their co-workers in the service department down the road.

I'd like to say that this is a surprise, given that of the cars I bought 15 years ago, Toyota was great, Chevy was crap. You'd think that the American car makers would have tried to improve things, since this is not a recent event. Apparently not.

@dtmoore: I

What he said

VW, love my Jetta Wolfsburg. Wife has an Escape. Unless there are significant changes, we'll end up getting a small SUV from them for her.

Does this study take the financing experience into consideration? I've had great service from American Honda Finance. How are GMAC, Daimler-Chrysler Financial, Ford Credit?

I have to say the survey was a bit of a surprise. I wouldn't trade my Jeep for anything. So far the dealership I bought it from has been nothing but great to me.

@Simply_J: This is exactly the system in place right now at pretty much any franchise, and it's called CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) scores - and guess what? It doesn't work. In theory, customers who have just bought are car are surveyed to see how their experience was, and anything less than a top score in for any given question is failing. Dealers have always had ways of getting around this - for example, I've known a few that will lure you with a financial incentive if you return the survey to the dealer, which will then "submit it for you." Guess what happens to it then?

Cars from 2 of the big three are better than they've ever been (Chrysler, not so much) - like with the Ford Fusion, and the new Chevy Malibu looks very promising. The gap that remains is more so in consumer perception than actual quality. But they certainly earned this reputation by decades of neglecting their products, and everything will have to line up for them to come out of it. They've made decent headway on the quality of their cars, but now they need to bring the dealer experience up to par, stop dumping so many units into fleets, and do what's necessary to improve residual values.

If you don't think it's possible, look to Hyundai. In the mid-80s, they had a reputation for building worthless econoboxes (the Excel). Through improving the quality of their cars, the dealer experience and then backing it with their 10 year/100K warranty, they've positioned themselves in the marketplace where they can now sell a $40K car (Genesis) that competes with Lexus - and it looks like it might just work.

I totally agree with the overall sentiment here. It is such a dealer-to-dealer experience that it is hard to judge one brand over another.

I have only purchased 2 cars new, a Range Rover and an Audi, and have had incredible experiences both places (although better with Audi). I bought a lightly used Explorer from a Ford dealership in College, and found the high pressure tactics to be off-putting, but there are so many variables that I don't know that i can accurately judge.

I will say that shopping for higher-end cars is a whole different experience from looking at base-model Chevy Cobalts, but you pay a hefty premium for that, and it may or may not be worth it depending on what you value in a vehicle.

@Eric Lai:
Honestly, the only people who truly beleive that anything made by Hyundai is a competition for anything made by Lexus are people trying to justify their purchase of a new Hyundai.

@Secret Agent Man: Maybe so, but recall how hard the German Big 3 were laughing in 1989 when a new luxury brand called Lexus introduced their first car? Now ... not so much. The only difference here is that the new car is being marketed as a Hyundai and under a new brand.

My American autos have been MUCH better than my Japanese cars. My Hondas only survived until 200K and 225K miles, My Mazda died at 140K. The thing about the Japanese vehicles is the build quality and repairability - of which there is NONE. I cannot rebuild my Honda motor, I cannot fix the body rot on the other. The Mazda was just a POS from Day one.

I will swear by Jeeps with manual transmissions and inline 6's - PERFECT vehicles.