JD Power

Former local favourites Ford and Holden are struggling on the sales charts, and things aren't much better at the service desk. Holden (770/1000) scored below the mass market average (788/1000) for customer service satisfaction, narrowly ahead of Jeep (769/1000), while Ford matched the industry average in a consumer satisfaction survey.

Mazda has topped the JD Power Customer Service Satisfaction survey for the third year running in Australia, edging Toyota and Nissan for the crown. There were a few trends throughout the survey, most notably that transparency and ease of service booking were key. The 19 per cent of customers able to watch their vehicle being serviced were more satisfied than those who couldn't, while people who could book the service online were happier than their phone-toting counterparts.

As a general rule, people are having a better time with car dealers than just a few years ago, but some brands' franchise partners are still lagging behind the performance of industry leaders Mazda and Hyundai. That's a summary of the findings from market research firm J.D. Power, which this week published results from its latest annual customer survey. Overall satisfaction has climbed 48 points on a 1000-point scale since 2013, the firm says.

Vehicle manufacturers are investing billions of dollars into technologies that motorists aren’t using, according to industry analyst JD Power. JD Power’s inaugural 2015 Driver Interactive Vehicle Experience (DrIVE) report reveals that at least 20 per cent of new vehicle owners in the US have never used half of the measured technology features fitted to their cars.

Mazda has been rated the best automotive brand in Australia for aftersales and service experience for the second consecutive year. Mazda topped JD Power’s 2014 Australia Customer Service Index Study, which measures overall customer satisfaction with vehicle service experience at authorised service centres by rating service quality, vehicle pick-up, the service advisor, service initiation, and service facility.