(August 18, 2010) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Customer satisfaction with domestic
automobiles has shown resilience despite an overall decline for the industry, according to a report released today by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

Automobile satisfaction dipped 2.4% from an all-time industry high to a score of 82 on ACSI’s 0-100 scale, but Ford and General Motors are holding steady and their Lincoln-Mercury and Buick nameplates ttook the lead for the first time ever. Chrysler, however, continued to underperform, with two of its three divisions at the bottom.

“It was not long ago when Detroit’s products were clustered at the bottom of the industry. Although very few automakers improved this year, the domestic ones are either steady or have lost less in customer satisfaction compared to international competition,” said Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI and author of "The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference."

“In this sense, the near future looks good for Ford and General Motors. Satisfied customers tend to do more repeat business, generate good word-of-mouth and don’t require greater price incentives to come back,” Fornell said.

Even though satisfaction with most domestic and foreign automakers declined in 2010, U.S. brands showed the smallest drop, while Japanese and Korean brands fell the most, putting the U.S. slightly ahead of the Japanese and Koreans for the first time since 2000, although both continue to trail European automakers.

The news for the U.S. economy as a whole is not as positive. The national ACSI is unchanged from the first quarter of 2010, but it has dropped slightly from a year ago.

Following steep increases just before the economy began to recover, customer satisfaction is now stalling. The overall ACSI score is 75.9, compared with 76.1 in the second quarter of 2009.

“Although the near future looks promising for General Motors and Ford, at least in a competitive sense, the near term for the economy does not look bright,” said Fornell.