Although the aggregate automobile score has remained firm, there have been significant alterations within the nameplates. For example, there have been rather dramatic changes in customer satisfaction between American, Japanese, and European carmakers. The large lead held by the Japanese in 1994 has completely evaporated and has been taken over by European manufacturers. The Japanese now also trail the American manufacturers, albeit not by much. Hyundai has had the largest ACSI improvement of any company measured in the second quarter.
Sales are up dramatically too.
That is, repeat customer purchase for Hyundai is affected more by changing levels of customer satisfaction compared with other car makes. Only Saturn is in the same category. But Saturn has failed to improve its ACSI over the years. At this time, it may be too early to detect improvements in sales due to the higher ACSI scores for Dodge. Inventories have actually risen for most of its cars since last year.