"Figures lie and liars figure"

Remember that customer satisfaction is basically whether the customer got what he expected. If I buy a new Kia, I expect it to get from A to B. My new Mercedes OTOH, better not have as much as a rattle or buzz or I'm taking it in for service, and they better get it right the first time.

My Brother was Product Planner for Lexus when they launched, pretty good product but even better marketing. I wouldn't have traded my quattro for a new LS400, my Father's Lexus coupe was at best a reliable car that did things pretty well, but nowhere near the car at speed that even a GTI was. The simple fact is that Toyota (and Honda etc.) did good marketing, decided what the bulk of me-too buyers wanted, built cars with good fit and finish, serviced them extremely well (a huge advantage over my Audi, VW, and Mercedes new-car service experience at the time), and when the JD Powers Initial Quality Survey came out in the first 3months of ownership, the Toyota/Lexus customers were VERY satisfied, ... where those of us who expected more, ... got less and were not satisfied. There is also the fact that my quattro was almost trouble-free for 200k miles (until my daughter crashed it), the Mercedes not so great but most if its problems were crappy service. Another argument that I had at the time was Toyota/Lexus and Honda service and parts prices, ... my Mercedes and Audi parts and service were MUCH less expensive.

I'm happy with the build quality of new Mercedes cars. You get what you pay for, a new A or C class is in Camry price territory, can't expect it to be the same as an S-Class, but the interesting thing is that Mercedes/Daimler has figured out scalability to a point where that new C-class car has many of the same parts as the new S-class, just not as many of them, and the quality is really getting good.

I have yet to decide on the service / customer service, so far it has been excellent, but my car is only 2weeks old, have only driven it 2,000miles, have only been in the service bay with my older cars. However, no rattles, no buzzes, everything works well, getting better performance and mileage than advertised, ... lots of follow-up calls, I don't feel that Toyota is doing it any better. I do expect perfection, ... my Father and Father-in-law only expect an appliance with wheels of their new Avalons.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff