There are a few resources out there that I trust to keep me informed about new and used car pricing, quality ratings and current finance rates.  Of those select few, two stand out, JD Power and Kelly Blue Book.  These two automotive websites offer a wealth of information; I use kbb.com whenever I am pricing a used or new vehicle.  It provides me with MSRP and dealer invoice pricing, plus it allows me to determine what my trade-in is worth.  Another great website is JDPower.com which is the number one source of car and truck quality ratings.  The entire automotive industry bases the way it builds its products and takes care of its customers from the many surveys that come from JD Power.  Recently, an article from JDPower.com was released providing results taken from new car owners that shows "industry benchmarks for new-vehicle quality measured at 90 days of ownership."  With the current status of the automotive industry causing many consumers to be anxious about a vehicle purchase, this survey and others from JDPower.com can help bring ease to a buying decision.

 

My previous position with Acura was built around the results that would come from JD Power & Associates and their various customer satisfaction surveys.  Honda and Acura realized from these results that customer experience at the dealership level was terrible and inhibiting the manufacturer's ability to compete with domestic car makers.  The survey suggested that Honda and Acura were among the worst of all the car makes, so American Honda Motor Co. instituted a program that put a process improvement manager (that was me) in each dealership whose main responsibility was to review survey results and bring about change through process improvement.

 

Now, let me tell you something about bringing change to car dealerships.  It ain't easy.  I was telling car salesman that they need to do more paperwork or spend more time with customers, or even to come to my training sessions to learn about how to treat customers by the golden rule.  This was such a huge challenge because doing all this essentially took them away from the sales floor which may have caused them to lose customers.  But in order for our dealership to get any better in the surveys, there had to be a different thought process regarding customer experinece.   Change didn't stop on the sales floor, it went into the parts department and on down to service where there was always opportunity for process redesign.  In all, Honda and Acura spends millions of dollars trying to change the stigma of the car world. 

 

The moral of my story is to do your homework before purchasing, and use JDPower.com as a resource to assist in your selection process.  The survey results are so powerful that an entire industry uses them to make its next move.