Mazda puts a smile on your dial

Ever sat in traffic and noticed the dopey grin on the face of the Mazda 3 owner, the polite smile from the Mazda 6 owner or the knowing smirk coming your way from the RX-8 driver? Neither have I but...according to Western Australia’s RAC, Mazda’s make their owners happier than any other top selling brand.

There must be something in all that Zoom Zoom… The RAC with the help of J.D. Power and Associates conducted the vehicle ownership satisfaction study in Western Australia and focused on owners of vehicles that were up to three years old.

Mazda managed to rank the highest in the final report with a CSI (customer satisfaction index) of 799 out of a possible 1000. Honda were a few points behind with a CSI of 793, followed by Toyota on 775, with Subaru and Nissan rounding out the top five positions.

The overall average CSI score was 768 with Mitsubishi (766), Ford (761), Holden (755), Hyundai (745) and Kia (736) all recording below average scores.

The study also asked respondents to answer questions concerning how their brand of vehicle performed in the key areas of reliability, general appeal, service satisfaction and ownership costs. They were also asked to consider how the ownership experience had influenced their brand loyalty.

Mazda and Honda came up trumps for reliability and appeal, while Nissan scored top marks for service satisfaction. Both Honda and Nissan were rated as having the most affordable ownership costs.

Despite not topping any of these categories, Toyota vehicles encouraged the most brand loyalty with 94 percent of owners saying they would by another Toyota. The power of good marketing…

Predictably, Holden and Ford finished down the ladder, indicating that there is still considerable work to do before they will challenge the Japanese domination of the customer satisfaction surveys.

Steane

[Source: WA RAC]