fwd: Loyalty of car buyers

[John Allred <jallred@rtimeinc.com>]

This is from the Mercedes list.  I was suprised by the lack of high-end
Japanese makes (Lexus, Infiniti) -- do these marquees pander only to the
luxo-barge loving Americans?

John

----
Juergen Pallesky <jaguar@poweronline.net>
Translation of an article from the German car magazine
_Auto_ issue 23 of November 5th 1997 p. 32

Loyal car buyers

Surprising result of a survey of German consumer
advice institute _Stiftung Warentest_: Many car
drivers aren't completely satisfied with their car
but plan to buy the next car from the same
manufacturer. At a survey of their magazine
_Test_ nearly 14.000 readers judged about their
cars and reported about the tendencies to
breakdown of radiator, brakes or exhaust system. 
>From a total of 25 models taken into account for
the report three Ford did worst: Fiesta, Escort
and Sierra were most often criticized for operation
and handling, easiness of start-off, reliability
and fuel consumption. But 74 percent will buy a
Ford as their next car. The three manufacturers
Mercedes, Audi and VW reached, as the table shows,
the highest brand loyalty. Despite the fact that
many drivers of this brands criticized high fuel
consumption or the bad price-value relation, too.
The latter is also true for the garages: 82 percent
are satisfied - but with the sum of the repair bill
its only 62 percent.

Next time the same brand
Mercedes...92
Audi.......90
VW.........89
Toyota.....89
BMW........88
Volvo......87
Mazda......87
Mitsubishi.83
Nissan.....82
Renault....81
Honda......79
Citroen....79
Opel.......77
Peugeot....75
Ford.......74
Seat.......67
Fiat.......66

End of article


Greetings from Hamburg, Germany

Juergen

--
John Allred				phone:	(206) 281-7990 x114
Director of Software Engineering	fax:	(206) 281-7686
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