JD Power 2009 Customer Satisfaction Index

Interesting how the top manufacturers are so similar in the JD Power 2009 Customer Satisfaction Surveys for China and the UK.

China:
1 Honda
2 Lexus
3 Mercedes-Benz
4 Roewe

UK:
1 Lexus
2 Honda
3 Mercedes-Benz
4 Skoda

So will MG take Skoda's place in a few years time?

The data from the China after-sales service satisfaction survey shows that out of all the brands, the Roewe brand takes fourth place with Mercedes-Benz above and followed by BMW and Toyota.

Out of the Chinese domestic brands it is ranked first.

Source: http://www.bitauto.com/html/news/200986/200986720312828.shtml

China Results:


UK Results:

so many cars of two brand new models being built in new factories and ahead of BMW and Audi, and only just under Mercedes? That has to be excellent news for SAIC.

And the underpinnings from MG Rover are behind this success story.

My bet would be that Roewe's positioning as a premium brand would not work in Britain. I think knowing the brand Skoda already - even negatively - was better than starting with a brand new one.

patpending wrote:My bet would be that Roewe's positioning as a premium brand would not work in Britain. I think knowing the brand Skoda already - even negatively - was better than starting with a brand new one.

I suspect it would work as a "premium Skoda" though - more luxurius than a Skoda but still cheap compared to BMW, Merc., Lexus, whereas trying to position MG as anything but a sports brand is unlikely to work as people would continue to believe that it is a sports brand despite what the marketing suggested and that limits the market significantly.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:My bet would be that Roewe's positioning as a premium brand would not work in Britain. I think knowing the brand Skoda already - even negatively - was better than starting with a brand new one.

I suspect it would work as a "premium Skoda" though - more luxurius than a Skoda but still cheap compared to BMW, Merc., Lexus, whereas trying to position MG as anything but a sports brand is unlikely to work as people would continue to believe that it is a sports brand despite what the marketing suggested and that limits the market significantly.

Hmm - all those brands in the cupboard and starting with a brand new one that you can be sure everyone will pronounce the Roewe?...They've chosen not to do that in Chile or Belarus...

re Satisfaction Index, I have the results of German car club ADAC for 2008 here. Satisfaction is given only 15% weighting overall (compared with brand image 25% or build quality 30%).

On a scale from one to six, getting worse, Subaru (1.2 but 12th overall) leads Porsche (1.3/5th), Honda (1.3/10th) and Jaguar (1.3/21st).

Incidentally, Lexus isn't there separately but Toyota is fairly high at 1.4 (6th overall) (more than Audi (1.5, 1st) or VW (1 . 8, 2nd). Mercedes is 1.6 (3rd) and Skoda is 1.5 (7th)

I can see MG working in other countries, it's just in the UK that I think they will need a seperate brand for the non-sporty cars before long.

So people who have a bad experience hardly take that into account when choosing another new car! Probably true for most people, especially with established brands. For Roewe in China it is probably a lot more important at the moment because it will be the basis of the brands reputation for the first few years. For MG in the UK I guess it probably is true.

Could they use 'Sterling' in England and 'Stirling' in scotland as the exrover brand