Mercedes Still Ranks No. 1 in Poll of New Car Buyers

Mercedes-Benz once again led the automotive pack in a survey of consumers’ experiences while buying new cars, the auto marketing research firm of J. D. Power & Associates said Tuesday.

Ford and Pontiac, which is in its first year in the compact truck market, tied for first place in ratings resulting from a similar but separate Power survey of new owners of pickup trucks.

It was the fourth straight year that Mercedes has topped J. D. Power’s sales satisfaction index, which measures the buying experience of new-car owners, including such factors as the performance of salespeople, vehicle delivery and initial product quality. The Agoura-Hills firm also conducts separate surveys on new-car customer satisfaction and overall quality.

The ratings released Tuesday showed that owners of 1990 cars were much more satisfied with their buying experience than new compact truck buyers. The average car scored 109 points on the index, while new trucks scored 93 points.

Mercedes-Benz gained eight index points over its rating last year, the Power statement said, placing it two points ahead of second-place Infiniti, Nissan Motor Corp.’s new luxury car. Cadillac, with an improvement of two index points, placed third, five points behind Infiniti and two points ahead of Toyota’s Lexus, which was fourth.

Ford scored two points higher than it did last year--the only compact truck that managed to increase its score. No trucks were made under the Pontiac nameplate before the 1990-model year.

Buick was pushed back to the No. 5 spot from No. 3 last year.

1990 SALES SATISFACTION INDEX The index is based on a survey of more than 100,000 new car and new compact truck owners after approximately 90 days of ownership. The J. D. Power & Associates Sales Satisfaction Index covers: salesperson performance, delivery activities and initial product quality. The overall ranking is a combined score factoring of all three of these measures. Cars

‘89 ’90 Make rank rank Mercedes-Benz 1 1 Infiniti n/a 2 Cadillac 2 3 Lexus n/a 4 Buick 3 5 Lincoln 5 6 Oldsmobile 7 7 Mercury 5 8 Jaguar 9 8 BMW b/a 10 Saab b/a 11 Audi b/a 12 Chrysler 8 13 Ford 12 14 Toyota 12 14 Chevrolet 16 16

Trucks

‘89 ’90 Make rank rank Ford 3 1 Pontiac n/a 1 Chevrolet 2 3 Oldsmobile n/a 4 GMC 1 5 Toyota 4 6 Chrysler n/a 7

n/a: not available; b/a: below average

Source: J. D. Power & Associates