Holden Rates 15th In Latest Customer Satisfaction Survey

[JoeT]

Holden, Ford Fail Aussie Ratings Test

Stephen Corby
22 July 2007
www.drive.com.au

Australia's car manufacturers have been given a rev-up by their own customers, with Ford and Holden both rating well below Japanese and Korean brands in a people's choice survey.

Consumer website productreview.com.au asked car owners to give their vehicles a star rating out five for comfort, reliability, performance and customer satisfaction, and Subaru streeted the field, scoring an average of 4.23.

Ford trailed in ninth, at 3.73, while Holden was 15th at 2.81.

Road test: How Aussies rate their wheels

The best rated of the local manufacturers was the Japanese-owned Mitsubishi, which came in second at 4.11.

Korean brands Hyundai (fourth) and Ssangyong (seventh) both finished higher than the big-two Aussies.

The bad news for Ford comes in the same week that it announced it would close its Geelong engine-manufacturing plant in 2010, at a cost of 600 jobs.

The customer ratings, which sampled 2368 car owners, are in stark contrast to Vfacts car-sales figures, which show that, in June, Toyota, Holden and Ford sold the highest volume of vehicles, in that order.

Despite being the people's choice, Subaru rates only ninth on the sales charts.

Sheree Gibson, a Product Review spokeswoman, said she was surprised by Holden's result in the survey.

"Holden is a trademark of Australia and there are so many of them on the roads, but they're obviously not very happy owners," she said.

"They're not even rating three stars, and you wouldn't stay in a hotel if it didn't have three stars.

"It's all well and good for car companies to tell us how good their vehicles are, but it's better to know from someone who's owned the car, and this survey is all about customer satisfaction."

Holden spokesman John Lindsay said that while the website's findings were interesting, they did not represent a significant sample.

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Australia's car star ratings as voted by their owners on comsumer advocate website www.productreview.com.au

1. Subaru (Japan)
2. Mitsubishi (Japan)
3. Honda (Japan)
4. Hyundai (South Korea)
5. Toyota (Japan)
6. Jeep (USA)
7. Ssangyong (South Korea)
8. Mazda (Japan)
9. Ford (Australia)
10. Nissan (Japan)
11. Suzuki (Japan)
12. BMW (Germany)
13. Land Rover (Great Britain)
14. Kia (South Korea)
15. Holden (Australia)

Holden & Ford Fail Quality Test, Says New Survey
Holden Ranks 11th In National Customer Satisfaction Survey

[FunkyPig]

So Mitsubishi and Toyota are from Japan, but Ford and Holden are from Australia, despite all being local manufacturers and all being non-Australian owned?

The articles on Drive.com.au are very often poorly written.

[MrJamesMc]

I am slightly annoyed how all these japanese companies are overthrowing the domestic cars. I wish for Chevrolet to be number one here and Holden to be Number one in Australia but right now it's not happening at the moment.=(

[JoeT]

Originally Posted by FunkyPig

So Mitsubishi and Toyota are from Japan, but Ford and Holden are from Australia, despite all being local manufacturers and all being non-Australian owned?
The articles on Drive.com.au are very often poorly written.

I was thinking the same thing. Toyota produces more cars in Australia than Ford does.

[Ssom]

Lets see how happy all those Subaru owners are when something breaks and every mechanic tells them they won't touch the thing. It will break not long after warranty period, guaranteed

[cedarman24]

Yet the commodore is still no:1
i wonder where drive.com ranks?

[Butz]

Originally Posted by JoeT

I was thinking the same thing. Toyota produces more cars in Australia than Ford does.

Ford does more engineering in Australia than Toyota.

Anyway, why is Holden and Ford rated so low? I thought Aussies loved their Fords and Holdens, we love them (OK most of us love them).

[FunkyPig]

Originally Posted by cedarman24

Yet the commodore is still no:1
i wonder where drive.com ranks?

Holden can't assume everything will be ok and they will retain no. 1 sales with Commodore. They need to improve this, getting no. 15 on that list is a complete joke. Australia doesn't have the JD Power surveys ... yet, when/if that happens Holden will have something to worry about.

[FunkyPig]

Originally Posted by Butz

Ford does more engineering in Australia than Toyota.

Anyway, why is Holden and Ford rated so low? I thought Aussies loved their Fords and Holdens, we love them (OK most of us love them).

We love the cars yes, but the service sometimes isn't too great, and the reliability isn't nearly as good as cars like Camry.

One day Toyota will get serious and make a proper RWD car to complete with Falcon and Commodore and then they will be in trouble.

[redTT]

The customer ratings, which sampled 2368 car owners, are in stark contrast to Vfacts car-sales figures, which show that, in June, Toyota, Holden and Ford sold the highest volume of vehicles, in that order.

Another Holden and Ford bagging by MORONIC DRIVE.COM.AU.

How many damn articles are those idi0ts at Drivel going to write about how garbage the local products and how unhappy customers are with Holden and Ford.

Fact is, people still look at Holden and Ford as a great buy and as a reliable buy. Parts are far more readily available, very comfotable, powerful, prices are competitive, the offerings great and the engineering better than many similarly priced Japanese or European.

If people are so much against Ford and Holden then why arent they turning away from them and why are companies continuing to buy both Ford and Holden (even with increased petrol prices). Why has the premium offerings for Holden nd HSV posting record sales month after month.

Drive's survey wasn’t representative typical Australian car buyers. For example if those surveys were conducted in inner city and exclusive suburbs in Double Bay then of course they would prefer an expensive euro (for the parents) and a funky greenie type vehicle for the kiddies over a workhorse like a commodore. Country people, suburbanites and middle income families i.e. the majority has shown that they prefer Holden’s and Fords.

[asylum]

never even heard of that survey, and i drive an imported holden, and australian built mitsubishi.... who did they send the surveys to? probably the warranty list from holden and ford dealerships!

[AusCalais]

Originally Posted by asylum

never even heard of that survey, and i drive an imported holden, and australian built mitsubishi.... who did they send the surveys to? probably the warranty list from holden and ford dealerships!

Calm down guys...I wouldn't put much credence in this survey....to quote the website:

"...The Company

ProductReview.com.au is operated by AAA Marketing World Pty Ltd - A 100% Australian company based in Ultimo, Sydney. Our Directors, Michael Doubinski and Yury Shar have been a driving force behind successful Australian brands such as HotelClub.com.au and RatesToGo.com.au. We are a small team consisting of some of the most talented IT professionals (we like to believe!) in Australia. We have been involved with various E-commerce projects since early 1999. Our focus and passion lies in Internet community building and online information exchange. We combine solid IT, marketing and management skills with professionalism, ethics and dedication. ..."


ummm, yeah right.

Their top rating sedan is a 2006 Holden Statesman International, no longer in production....and based on 4 reviews.

[tgagneguam]

Lord knows I very much am willing to call the domestics when their work is not up to snuff, but I'm left to wonder what type of controls were in place to make this survey statistically useful. Are the differences meaningful? And how were respondents gathered? (asylum's above thought, while a bit tongue-in-cheek, is nonetheless well-taken).

Without a better understanding, particularly in light of the ginormous N of 2,368 (ahem), I'm left to interpret this study as more of "much ado about nothing" than anything else.

[jbernie]

The customer ratings, which sampled 2368 car owners, are in stark contrast to Vfacts car-sales figures, which show that, in June, Toyota, Holden and Ford sold the highest volume of vehicles,

so they surveyed the equivalent of 1/3rd the monthly buyers of the Commodore and come up with this. Seems like an awfully small sample given the number of owners out there.

Seems like my fellow Aussies are going the same way as the Americans... no matter what the locals do you can't please buying public, given some of the comments i see online it is amazing Ford & GM still exist in any form.

[asylum]

Originally Posted by AusCalais

Calm down guys...I wouldn't put much credence in this survey....to quote the website:

"...The Company
Our Directors, Michael Doubinski and Yury Shar

with names like that, how could they not love the local cars!