South Africa: Which brand has best service?

Drawing its quality conclusions from a sample group of buyers active in the new vehicle (or servicing) market between January and December 2010.

Synovate’s research is fundamentally divided between two categories (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) and unpacks customer experience and satisfaction on both the purchase and servicing side of the ownership equation.

In the passenger vehicle purchasing experience category Audi won gold (with a 95% score), with VW, Chevrolet and Toyota taking home silver awards.

Bronze went to Opel, Renault, Mercedes-Benz (surprisingly), Lexus (even more of a surprise), Ford. Mazda and Peugeot. 

Results for the servicing experience category were markedly different to that of the purchasing experience. Here Audi was dethroned by Mitsubishi, Lexus and Chevrolet (all three taking gold awards). 

Silver service awards were also handed out to VW and Mercedes-Benz, with Audi slipping into the bronze category for servicing, grouped with Toyota, Mazda and Opel. 

Bakkie owners, known for their no-nonsense attitude towards both vehicles and servicing, put Toyota, Isuzu and Chevrolet in the gold awards section for purchasing satisfaction, with Isuzu finishing top of the pile with 93%, trailed by Toyota and Chevrolet with equal scores of 92%.

Silver awards in the bakkie purchasing experience category went to Mitsubishi, Mazda and Ford, with Nissan being the sold brand awarded bronze.

In terms of servicing Nissan owners were much happier, moving the Japanese brand to gold award status, which it shared with Isuzu, Toyota, Chevrolet and Mitsubishi. Silver standard service could be had from Ford and Mazda, whilst Fiat was the sold brand awarded bronze. 

Synovate says their research is comprehensive and a true reflection of what is the state of play in the South African auto market with regards to customer service and satisfaction levels. The results are based on more than 33 000 interviews. Synovate interviews about 83% of the PC market and 98% of the LCV market.