Mazda and Volvo top new owner satisfaction survey

A NEW survey by Roy Morgan has found Mazda owners to be the most satisfied in the country, just a week after Hyundai and Kia topped a similar poll from J.D. Power.

The Roy Morgan Automotive Satisfaction Report is based on 40,000 interviews from the last 12 months with Aussie motorists.

A whopping 95.3 percent of Mazda owners responded they were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ satisfied with their vehicle in the year leading up to July 2017.

While that only represents a 0.2 percent increase, it moves Mazda from fourth to first in the rankings, leapfrogging Lexus, Skoda, and Isuzu.

Volvo was found to have the second-most satisfied customers, with 95.2 percent happy with their car (an increase of 3.8 percent). Lexus was third, after a 2.5 percent dip in satisfaction, ahead of Skoda and Isuzu.

At the other end of the spectrum, Daihatsu customers were the least satisfied of the top 24 brands, with 85.9 percent, behind Jeep (88.9 percent), and Holden (89.3 percent).

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Renault was most improved, with 94.2 percent of respondents satisfied with their French car (up 5.2 percent), while Jeep took the steepest dive, down 5.2 percent on the previous 12 months.

The Roy Morgan study looks at long-term owner satisfaction, while the J.D. Power results published earlier this month focus on initial post-sale happiness.

“In such a highly competitive car market as Australia, it is critical that brands focus on their satisfaction ratings relative to their major competitors and across key segments because customer satisfaction has the potential to impact on customer retention and advocacy,” said Norman Morris, director of industry communications for Roy Morgan Research.