People smile about as much when waiting for their vehicles to be serviced as they do while waiting for an appointment with an endodontist
By Gary S. Vasilash
Once upon a time, General Motors’ Saturn had the kind of customer satisfaction—both in terms of the showroom and in the service department—that other brands (including GM brands) could only dream of. And evidently they did more dreaming than modeling those excellent Saturn methods.
Remember: Saturn was selling to the mass market.
While Lexus, which was also renowned for service in its early days, had a cappuccino machine for people who were waiting for their vehicles to be serviced, Saturn had a popcorn machine.
That’s the difference between “premium” and “mass market.”
Still, even if it is a great service department, no one really wants to have to take their vehicle in. It is generally inconvenient. And that is just one issue.
For 46 years JD Power has been conducting its U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study.
This year it found that consumers are rating their service experience higher this go than last year: on a 1,000-point scale it rates 868, a three-point increase.
That has more than a little something to do with the experience in the premium segment, which is up eight points to 886.
Meanwhile, in the mass market, the score is 865, another three-point rise.
In the premium space the top three for overall customer satisfaction are:
- Porsche: 915
- Infiniti: 912
- Lexus: 900
But what’s interesting to consider is that in 2025 Porsche sold 76,219 vehicles in the U.S., Infiniti sold 52,846, and Lexus sold 370,260 vehicles.
In other words, you could add Porsche and Infiniti together and then double that number and it still wouldn’t reach the Lexus 370,260 (it is 258,130).
Presumably there’s something to be said for fewer vehicles when it comes to service.
This is almost as clearly borne out in the mass market segment:
- MINI: 887
- Subaru: 886
- Buick: 882
In this case, MINI had 2025 U.S. sales of 28,749, Subaru 643,591, and Buick 198,155.
It is worth noting that Ford came in 4th—and it sold 2,204,124 vehicles in the U.S. in 2025. And had 153 recalls (not all of which required a visit to a service department because there were some modifications made via over-the-air updates).
One of the things that OEMs are banging on about as they justify their developments of autonomous driving technology is “giving back” time to the driver.
They should probably have a chat with their franchised dealers about that notion.
JD Power found that when people bring their cars in for maintenance—oil changes, tire rotations—it takes three times longer at a dealer than it does at an aftermarket service center.
One thing that seems somewhat unusual is the finding that 64% of customers want photo/video documentation along with multi-point inspection results. It is almost as though they are a bit suspicious of what was—or wasn’t—done.
An interesting finding is that customers who have purchased a vehicle from a brand like Tesla or Rivian, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, and then go back to a traditional brand for their next vehicle have less satisfaction with that tradition service experience, having had things like mobile service from the DTC brands: in the premium segment the score is 855, or 29 points lower than the mass-market average.
Given that service departments account for as much as some 50% of a dealership’s gross profit, keeping customers satisfied is essential.
Saturn, incidentally, ceased to exist in 2010. Of the four GM brands that the corporation decided to concentrate on as a result of its 2009 bankruptcy, as noted, Buick did well in the 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index Study, coming in third in the mass-market category. Chevrolet came in seventh; GMC came in 10th (at 862, below the segment average of 865); and Cadillac, in the premium category, came in fifth, tied with Lincoln.
Wonder what GM’s numbers would have been like if there was still that “Different Kind of Company” in its portfolio. . . .
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