Thursday 18th November 2004

Jaguar makes first in buyer survey

JD Power survey in the US shows Coventry company at top spot

---

Jaguar has shot to top spot in the 2004 J.D. Power survey in the US, up seven positions.

The study is based on responses from nearly 40,000 buyers and lessees of new vehicles, and measures the quality of the customer's new vehicle purchase experience.

"The result of the SSI study is very rewarding, both for Jaguar and our dealers," said Mike O'Driscoll, president, Aston Martin Jaguar Land Rover North America. "It is evidence of our commitment to deliver a first-class purchase and ownership experience and reflects the intense focus we all have on delighting our customers. Jaguar is distinguished by its style and performance, and these attributes are reflected in the service offered by all of our dealers".

Progress in this latest survey, in which Lexus tied with Jaguar at number 1, follows excellent results in other recent J.D. Power studies. In the 2004 Initial Quality Study, Jaguar moved up to become the highest-ranked European car manufacturer for vehicle quality and dependability, improving its performance by 20 per cent over the previous year.

Hopefully, this will help offset the air of gloom that currently hangs overt the Coventry company, which this week saw the sale of its F1 racing team to Red Bull, and a few weeks earlier, the announcement of the closure of its ancestral home, the car-making plant at Browns Lane. What's more, in the US, Jaguar's biggest single market, the weak US dollar is making the car look expensive and is hurting sales, according to Ford sources.

[Twin Turbo]

Excellent. It's about time we had some good news from Jaguar

[Davidson]

Excellent, congratulations to Jaguar, well deserved! I would imagine the US are much more demanding in terms of customer staisfaction as well............ Still does not excuse the new XJ shape being ruined to accaoomdate 8 sets of golf clubs and fat American ar*es at US request.

[cdp]

When the Dollar's low, exporters complain. When the Euros low exporters complain. Thing is if we were in the Euro the Dollar situation would be even worse and if we were in the Dollar the Euro would be a problem.

Good job we're in Sterling.

[jagpower]

superb

[NAPiston]

There's an interesting contradiction here.

Ford is saying that the cars are not selling because of price, but this survey is an "analysis of the new-vehicle purchase experience", including a section for the customer's opinion of the price of the car in the survey. In other words, evidently the people that bought the car thought that it was very well priced.

It is also important to note that this survey has little to do with the quality of the car itself, it's more a survey of competing auto sales departments in the U.S., and Jaguar and Lexus came out on top.