The first drop in satisfaction with automobiles, vans and light trucks in over three years helped push down both the manufacturing durables index and the national index, which are reported on 0 to 100 scales. The decline offset gains in customer satisfaction made in 1998. While the automobile industry experienced a slight drop in customer satisfaction, household appliances held steady and both the consumer electronics and personal computer industries enjoyed increases in customer satisfaction. VW's new bug scores, but luxury leads the way. Service satisfaction lags product satisfaction.
Automotive sales are good despite the slight downturn in satisfaction.
Volkswagen demonstrated what a hot new product that catches on with the public can do. Although production technology is closing the gap between economy and luxury cars in terms of defects per car, luxury brands such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Buick and Cadillac lead the way in overall customer satisfaction. Because of significantly larger margins in the luxury car market, customer loyalty is more important in this segment. Accordingly, luxury car manufacturers tend to have stronger customer management programs in place. ACSI measures customer satisfaction with both the service and product components of manufacturing durables.