General Motors’ Customer Satisfaction Falling, According To Recent ACSI Study
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The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently published the findings from its 2019-2020 Automobile Report, which ranks brands based on the average level of consumer satisfaction with the brand’s products.
This year’s ACSI Automobile Report was bad news for the automotive industry as a whole, with the agency “recognizing an ongoing trend of declining customer satisfaction” in the past year. Overall, 21 of the 27 nameplates it tracks data for saw declines in customer satisfaction and the mainstream General Motors brands, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC, were no exception. In fact, ACSI found that Buick and Chevrolet both retreated to record low satisfaction levels this year, with Chevy falling to 76 percent from 80 percent and Buick from 79 percent to 76 percent. GMC stayed flat year-over-year at 78 percent.
Cadillac was ranked separately with the luxury brands and saw a decline of one point for an 80 percent satisfaction score. This is good news for Cadillac, as customers ranked the second most-satisfied among luxury car owners, tied with Audi. Lexus was first at 82 percent, while Lincoln was last at 77 percent.
Meanwhile, General Motors as a whole saw a rather steep decline of 5 points to 76 percent, putting it just one percentage point ahead of Ford. Fiat Chrysler managed to buck the trend its rivals saw, with customer satisfaction rising 3 points to tie with GM at 77 percent satisfaction.
So what is driving this drop in customer satisfaction? ACSI found that roughly one-third of survey respondents reported experiencing a vehicle recall on their car, truck or SUV and says the negative impact recalls have on customer satisfaction is increasing.
“Two years ago, customer satisfaction among drivers who had a recalled vehicle was nearly the same as those who had not experienced a recall. In 2019, drivers weathering recalls were less satisfied by a gap of 2 points. Now, this gap widens to 3 points as those with recalls are noticeably less content (76 percent) than those without recalls (79 percent),” the ACSI report said.
ACSI also found that the better an automaker handles recalls, the less of an impact issuing recalls has on customer satisfaction. Toyota, Nissan, Infiniti and Mazda “all show no adverse impact of recalls on satisfaction,” while Volvo and Mitsubishi “do even better, registering higher satisfaction for customers who experienced a recall.”
Other factors that can impact customer experience include ride quality/comfort, interior quality/design, driving performance, paint quality, reliability, warranties, gas mileage, technology and even the quality of the brand’s mobile app, among more.
Automakers will be conscious to keep existing customers in happy in the next months and years as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges for the automotive industry, ACSI also predicts.
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FCA owners are satisfied until the next year when the cars start having a myriad of issues…
I’m not satisfied. Tell that to GM as my 2018 Traverse visited the dealer 7 times, yes 7 times for multiple issues and at one point was in there for a month due to miscommunication by GM and the dealer and they couldn’t get parts because no one could get their act together. They still tell me the steering rack doesn’t have an issue even though it clunks all the time. And the fact that all of my loaners had issues. The dash in the Silverado I had with only 4000 miles on it sounded like it was going to come apart. The 2020 Traverse we had another time with ONLY 300 miles on it got a check engine light and the transmission wouldn’t shift out of 4th gear. They replaced it with an Equinox to which the dealer replied and actually said this “this one should be good” as soon as I left the dealer the check engine light came on.
I’ve had 3 Jeep Grand Cherokees with ZERO issues 0. Gas, oil change, tire rotations. That’s it. No check engine lights, squeaks, or rattles like my 2018 Traverse has EVERYWHERE.
Most of the time the check engine light comes on is because of cheap gas, after a fill-up with better gas it goes away. Maybe your dealer should find a better gas station.
Wow, thanks Mr Wog! I now have something to tell my customers that come in every day with check engine lights. I wish I had known this sooner. I could have saved General Motors and my dealership hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That’s one huge reason why I want Covid-19 to kill off some Automakers.
If GM dies then I’ll be fine with that.
It took Lehman Brothers dying in 2008 for the Banks to get their head out of their ass. It will take a major automaker dying for the automotive industry to do the same.
interesting. You seem to had more than your share of issues which truly perlexes me and makes me somewhat dubious. i had 20 years of interacting with customers on product issues as a factory rep and i am probably one of the critical of GM’s performance .
are you aware you can trigger a check engine light by simply not screwing your fuel tank cap; its even happened to me and my wife was notorious for this.
from my experiences i can share this with you … in most cases i was involved in that were presented as ‘horror’ stories they actually werent. itvwas a matter of customers ecoectations. Customers tune into things and once thst happens cant let go. i am not saying that was yiur case but it was a common phenomina.
case in point; i frequently took customers out of these horror stories cause i knew they would never be satisfied. The vehicles werent crushed or baled, they were resoldvat auctions … and in all my years tracking the history of those vehicles i never had one reappear as a horror csse in the hands of another customer. the new owners didnt bring them in with a list a page long of issues nor did any of the prior owner issues resurfsce
GM loss me as a customer in 2006 when I bought a lemon from them. The car didn’t make it 6 miles before it had a major engine problem and the engine had to be replaced. The dealership I bought it from was crap. The car couldn’t idle without shutting off, and they just sold it hoping I wouldn’t notice until I was off the lot and it became a service issue. Later that crappy dealer folded the GM part of their business and went all Toyota and Honda. I kept that car for 8 troublesome years only to trade it for a Nissan with a bad CVT but I’m still far less bitter with Nissan then GM. When a customer buys a brand new car and it’s a lemon do the right thing. When you screw the customer and say we’ll fix it we’ll fix it that’s crap. That car I bought had the engine replaced, transmission replaced steering shafts lubed multiple times and finally replaced, motor mounts replaced etc and it was nothing but garbage. I asked to speak to the regional manager at the beginning of my problems but was told he considered the matter closed. For the one time $25k sale GM lost me as customer for life. My family will never buy from GM and I’m like a herald; I’ll tell that story forever so when satisfaction is going down and GM has a history of screwing customers what are they going to do more commercials saying how great the new products are? How about something novel make amends look back see if there are offers that you can make along with heart felt apologizes that will bring us back otherwise I’m happy buying Honda now and if GM goes under like AMC, Studebaker or Nash I won’t shed a tear.
Well, when you go to a dealership, and have them look into something, and they tell you “we have to order a part. well call you back when it comes in” and you never get a call. That’s not satisfying.
When a vehicles warranty is only 3 years/36k miles, and the vehicle starts having minor problems around 42k miles (sunroof motor, passenger seat lumbar broken, trim pieces falling off) that’s not satisfying.
Having only one engine choice, or one interior color choice, or 8 exterior color choices, is not satisfying.
Having to fill up a truck twice a week due to an undersized fuel tank is not satisfying.
Not being able to get a service loaner while maintenance is being performed, is not satisfying.
It’s only going to get worse with more and more product holes, model discontinuations, added complexity and technologies and ever rising prices
#1 GM still has too many dealers.
#2 too many of these dealers are poorly run.
You see it all the time where people have sales or warranty issues and most are due to poorly run dealers.
GM has tried to force dealers to fall in line with surveys and loss of discounts but they still hold on.
Fewer dealers like Toyota or other dealers would result in stronger dealers able to offer better service and earn more money making the network stronger.
But GM can not afford to buy them out and until then GM has relied on dealership networks like Hendricks and Serra to buy up many of the poor dealers and turn them around under their networks.
Also good help is hard to find anymore. Many have openings difficult to fill.
GM has been caught avoiding recalls in the past so you can’t put all of this on dealerships. GM can easily expedite the process of getting rid of dealerships by cutting back on brands and models. Neither Buick or Cadillac are doing well and one of them can go. Next, there is no need for for Buick and GMC. They can also go the FCA route and get rid of stand alone dealerships to eliminate many of the bad apples. Make dealerships sale all GM brands under one roof like FCA did and watch how many would expect a buyout.
all manufactures try to avoid recalls initiated by govrrnment agencies. GM however does have consistently the highest completion rates among thr manufactures. you should see the dismal results of some of the other manufactures who dont complete them unless you fell in their building
What do other brands have to do with this article and GM’s problems??
ahhh for illustration purposes. Customerx percievr they do it better and the bsr the achieve is a higher stsndard than GM can so it states others can meet customer expectations
Eli you are correct. It is a common practice in the industry for several reasons.
How long has ford avoided the a Crown Vic gas tanks and Jeep the Jeep fuel tank fires.
Every MFG has done it.
Classic problem with brand loyalty. Others do it so that makes it okay.
Avoiding recalls is an industry standard so that is level ground for all.
GM has killed brands if you had not noticed.
The problem with GMC and the Buick SUV lines is they make money. In fact lots of money. My local stand alone GMC dealers averages over $60k on Transaction prices. GMC is one of the most profitable things at GM.
GM tried to shut down many low rated dealers but the Government stopped them.
Second you can not force dealers to take brands they don’t want. Also you do not need as many a Cadillac dealers as Chevy.
Contracts are made and the dealers hold the cards due to government regulations.
Who said they don’t, this is a GM page I mind you.
Yes, I remember when the government made GM get rid of Pontiac and boy do I miss them.
You can move the rebadged Buick SUV’S over to GMC or Cadillac and they want miss any sales.
GM is blowing so much money on Cadillac sedans. They suffer from visions of grandeur, thinking they see a BMW competitor when they look at Cadillac sedans. And let’s not even start on Buick sedans.
GM agreed with the Obama administration to get rid of the dealerships. GM was offered counter monies to keep them open. They were not forced to do it.
There are clauses and loopholes to get out of it. Trust me they can get rid of dealerships.
GM needs to scrap the 3.6 V6 and go back to the 3800 series 3 engine for better reliability and customer satisfaction.
While the 3800 was a good engine for the 80’s and 90’s and perhaps early 00’s it was getting very long in the tooth after about 2005. It’s peak HP was 205 or 260 with the aid of a supercharger and the majority of it’s power was down low. Because of this low rev low effort nature mileage was generally quite good. The issues with this motor was that it was a very old design with heavy all cast iron construction that was not going to be able to pass upcoming MPG and emission standards combined with the power customers wanted.
Enter the Global designed High Feature 3.0/3.6 engines in DOHC 4 valve per cylinder configuration. Introduced in 2004 as a far more modern, lighter weight, power dense and efficient design it first debuted in the Cadillac CTS with 255 HP and then 263 3 model years later.
The thing with the 3.6 GM engines is that you cannot lump them in as all the same engine. There are numerous versions of this mill starting off with the LY7 and after that a revamped and more powerful LLT motor that made 302 HP in the Camaro and certain Cadillac models starting in 2006. The 2012 designed LFX and LLT engine mostly corrected the timing chain stretching issue by using a different supplier and shorter oil change intervals. Also early engines had an issue with the PCV system sucking oil through a larger than normal sized vent hole which killed the chains and tensioners in short order. All of these issues were corrected on newer engine and the LFX, LGX, LGZ, LGW and LF3/LF4 engines were all much better with a far lower rate of warranty repairs.
With all that in mind it’s easy to see why the 3.6 is used in so many GM products and liked my so many consumers. I love the LFX’s engines that were in my Impala’s and most every shopper says they love the 3.6 as installed in the latest editions of the Traverse, Enclave and Acadia.
Barrra must go. What positive impact has she had?
I’ve talked about this before. My 2017 Acadia Denali is, for the most part, a good vehicle. Overall they’re considered to be pretty reliable, with decent fuel economy for the size, and with the 3.6, mine is pretty zippy too. However, mine is supposedly an oddball in that with 33.000 miles on it, the transmission has been rebuilt once and replaced twice. (And its ready to be replaced again) I’m caught in the middle because my local dealer doesn’t want to replace it again since there’s every reason to expect the next one will develop the exact same fault the previous 4 have. (And I agree) But on the other side, customer service won’t buy it back despite the issues, (Some sort of double talk about it being 3 years old and the lemon law being expired, etc.) and so their brilliant suggestion was “Hey, you still have 2 more years of power-train warranty, so just keep replacing it!
Really Customer service? THAT’S your BEST suggestion to satisfy THIS customer???
i would be suspicious that in the course of those repairs somebody didnt properly flush the tranny cooler. Contamination from the previous repair can float around tearing seals orvcausing valves to stick … end resukt another failure or two or three
I spoke to the trans guy at the dealer, and read my paperwork. Trans cooler flushed, and indicated good flow every time.
But my trans defect is so weird, even the GM TAC guys are stumped.
Huge shift flares (800-1000 RPM) from 2nd to 3rd gear, ONLY in left turns!
NEVER when going straight, NEVER when turning right.
New transmissions come with new computers. Each time the problem is fixed for a few months / few thousand miles, then the same problem returns…
It is cost prohibitive!, to build reliable cars and to have satisfied customers…. It just costs too much!
It is COST prohibitive!, to build reliable cars and have satisfied customers… It just costs too much!
In this article, I will defend all brands no matter who they are. Overall, people are just expecting too much any more no matter if it’s cell phones, cars, computers, shoes or whatever. The general public just expects everything to be perfect (to their outlandish standards) and when something is wrong they expect the world and then some. The days of buying something and expecting to have an issue and being happy when it’s taken care of are gone. In it’s place is customers buying anything and expecting that it all be perfect. When it’s not perfect, then they expect over-the-top service that isn’t realistic any more. I’ve been referring to this as “entitlement issues” and it’s making things really miserable in life. Kind of like that a-hole customer in the restaurant who snaps their fingers at the wait staff. Demanding and entitled.
Agreed. I used to teach in a trade school and I always told my students I wouldn’t get involved in a Ford vs GM vs Ram truck debate because “they all make winners and they all make stinkers.” I have a problem GMC right now, but that didn’t stop me from buying a new Cadillac CT5-V recently. You always hear people say “You should have bought a _______ instead” These are complex mechanical devices, and you’ll never completely escape issues by switching brands. I have a co-worker who recently bought a brand new Honda, and now at 1600 miles its having problems. It’s just frustrating that some customer service people take the attitude of “You pays your money, you takes your chances.”
@jetfixer320. I agree.
A long time ago, a rep from either GM or Honda gave a very realistic look at all this. He pointed out that the average car has approximately 10,000 individual parts. He went on to say that a very low defect rate would be 1%. In other words, for every 100 parts, if you had 1 part fail, that would be a low rate. Now apply this to any automobile with about 10,000 parts. So if you had 1% failure rate in those parts, you would have an average of 100 problems per every car made! Think about that. So even if you take one of the lowest rated brands on JDP surveys (Jeep), who shows around 150 problems per 100 vehicles (or an average of 1.5 problems per vehicle). That is light years away from a 1% failure rate. And this is just talking about parts! Now look at how many of these “cry-babies” get upset that the Bluetooth in their brand new car doesn’t “work” the way they “think” it should. According to JDP, a complaint about the Bluetooth would be considered a problem in most cases. Just ridiculous right? But overall, my point is that even the worst car today has less than 1/10th of 1% parts failures rate and most issues are really user error.
To turn this around perhaps GM should spend more time being vanguards of business ethics and inclusion and file more frivolous lawsuits against competitors that are beating them in the marketplace.
Almost all of these “recalls” are computer updates that we are forced to undergo or risk a lawsuit if you are involved in a crash due to not getting the recall done.For instance on my 2019 Chevy Silverado Custom Trail Boss Z71 there were 2 recalls on the brakes that were all about software,nothing mechanical.Guess what?I got them done even though ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was wrong with my brakes,PITA!Aslo another one about the seat belt safety lock actuator possibly starting a fire during a crash,again-nothing wrong with the seat belts.As a result of the brake software updates the infotainment screen occasionally goes black and you have to shut down the truck for a few minutes to reset it.Goes to show that tech is oversold and severely underrated,it rarely delivers what it is promised to be.I love my Trail Boss,best truck ever.SO THESE SURVEYS DON’T DELIVER ANY DETAILS so take them with a grain of salt.
those recalls do not affect 100% of the population affected. many are just require an inspection to ensure your vehicle is not affected
Dealership experience can really make or break any problems with the car. I mean you bought it cause you love it but if they can’t or won’t fix something or are shady in any way can be enough for dissatisfied customer
Sorry I meant overrated for tech.
Vehicle ownership experience is critical in satisfaction. it’s the first thing people comment about when you ask them howvis there vehicle. A positivr response is great; no problems so far!
fir years GM has tried to make Customer Satisfaction a Dealershio issue when the actual issues were the product performance. Dealers on the other hand plsyed games with questionaires asking customers to bring them in and we’ll help you fill it out or offering trinkets forva Very Satisfied response. The data collected essentially became useless
GM still uses the surveys to penalize dealers. Unless the customer is completely satisfied, the dealer fails. Customers hold the dealer hostage for free stuff to give them a completely satisfied surrey. So doesn’t get real data from surveys they are looking for. Every manufacturer and large business is the same when it comes to surveys. GM customer service is a joke. They won’t tell a customer no or help them, they refer everyone back to the dealer. Then they audit you if your warranty numbers are to high.
No $hit its falling !!
I love the people here who blame, blame, blame !
If its the dealers fault, GM should fix it !! You guys say, GM can’t fix it because of franchise laws
—————— WHO ENTERED INTO THESE AGREEMENTS ? —————————–
————————- GM DID —————————————-
How do you blame anyone else ? There is a way GM can fix this !
Even when its a bad dealer C8.R !!!!
You see, when the customer is not satisfied, the customer calls GM customer support !!!
Again at this time GM could fix this, GM could side with the customer and pay for the ” Known Faulty ” $16.00 part I had already paid for !! NO what does GM do, they conference call the dealer with the customer, and then the service manager at the bad dealership lies, he was and is a liar !! GM could see that we had just paid for the part, why not just replace it with a good one ? WHY, because at GM the person on the other end of the phone knows nothing about what is a ” Known Faulty ” part, only the dealer does !!! AND this is a GM problem !!
You do realize GM makes the ” Known Faulty ” parts
————————- NOT THE CUSTOMER OR THE DEALER ————————-
OK so for you people here who thing this satisfaction result is do to people expecting more,
NO —- NO it is not !!!
If you buy a vehicle and that vehicle has power brakes, you expect the power brakes to work, and power steering, and CUE screen, and heated seats, and wheels not to break, and transmissions to shift, and engines not to burn oil, and so on !!
Its like this, If GM advertised that a GM vehicle is only expected to last the warranty period FINE do just that !
At the end of EVERY GM ad, repeat after me
And just remember, your new GM vehicle will only last your warranty period, and if you have troubles after that, it is not on GM.
——————————- We at GM only design our new vehicles to last 36,000 miles ——————————
Problem solved, you would not have a customer ever not be satisfied, GM would soon not have any customers, yet thats where this is headed AGAIN !
Quit blaming the assembler. they are the lowest pawn in this and have NOTHING to do with the design !
Quit blaming the dealer, they to have nothing to do with the design !
GM should be talking to the customer, when the customer wants to talk,
———————– the customer calls GM to talk to GM —————————-
———————–The customer no longer wants to talk to the dealer, THATS WHY THE CUSTOMER CALLED GM —————–
The recalls and TSB’s are design issues, NOT, let me say that again, they are NOT, the customer not being satisfied !
When you pay for X you should get X !
In fact in any other industry, this is fraud, and illegal .
When I buy a HD truck, and order it with a block heater, your fix GM , can not be cut the cord off, now its fixed and will not burn your truck up in your garage !
I am telling you people, YOU are the problem, YOU GM people sticking up for just cheap $hit, GM is putting out !
And blaming it on regulations,
————-If you cant make a product to compete, get out of the business ——————
Quit blaming , and blaming, and blaming
Its just like when some here tell me to quit buying GM if their customer support is so horrible.
I say , GM quit selling vehicle if you can’t make them work any longer !
HOW can you people not get this ?
C8.R, your last GM vehicle before your Canyon, did GM have to replace the transmission under 5000 miles ?
Because my last 3 GM vehicles, have been in the dealerships more with less than 50,000 miles than 37 years worth of GM vehicles COMBINED, COMBINED, did you here that, 37 years of GM vehicles, had less troubles than the last 3 with under 50,000 miles !!!!!
And even that, if I felt GM thought they were responsible for their cheap junk it would be one thing, but when you go to the dealer, its like you are to blame, for a 2020 vehicle with less that 12,000 miles, WOW !!!!!!!!!
GM just simply has HORRIBLE customer support, HORRIBLE !
And if GM could design a vehicle that DID NOT need to go to the dealership in the first place, IT WOULD NOT MATTER if GM had HORRIBLE customer support, nobody would know because nobody would need it !!!
This is a problem LOOK, READ, TALK TO PEOPLE !!! GM customers are being treated like $hit!!!!
By GM –
By the dealer —
By the old GM boomer, who doesn’t even own, the vehicles having the troubles, or are having the troubles, like everyone else, yet for some reason it is great having your transmission replaced in your new GM truck – C8,R !
No $hit GM customer satisfaction is falling !
First off it should be fraud to advertise a vehicle that works, and sell a vehicle that does not !
The dealer feedback system can not work the way it is because GM incentivizes top ratings, and that is the only people the dealers let fill out the surveys !
This is for all you here that are the GM excuse people, and the push the blame people !
In the last 37 or so years my GM vehicles have been to the dealership less than the last 3 GM vehicles with less than 50,000 miles on them ! GET THAT !!! 37 years worth of GM vehicles added together, still less than the last 3 !
And WOW, like C8.R, you had your transmission replaced in your new GM truck, and that is great to you ?
And there is a large % of GM owners that are NOT treated like you !
And when you pay for a block heater in a 2017 Denali, you want a block heater, and a fix for the recall because it will burn up, is NOT to cut the cord !!!!!
The CUS systems are junk, the heat seats are junk, the wheels are breaking, the headlights are foggy, the engines burn oil, the shifters will not go into park
WHAT !!!
And back to a happy customer, when I call GM it is because I no longer want to talk to the dealer, the dealer can no longer make the customer happy. So WHY would GM conference call in the dealer ? The customer is not happy with the dealer !
GM needs to talk with their customers !!
Even like some of you say, the low % of parts will just fail, OK sure, but if the customer is treated like a subordinate by an underpaid disgruntled GM customer support person, the customer will not be satisfied !
And back to whos problem this is ?
Well it sure as h3ll is not the apposable thumb working poor that are making these decisions.
It is the overpaid, designers and engineers, and managers who are !!!
O well, Life goes on and GM just keeps losing !
and i phone is $800.00 at 70 percent profit to apple, a trailblazer starts at $20,000.00 and is 12 percent profit to gm, not sticking up for all things gm but try understand that car manufacturing is a tough buissness