caddyowner

The MKT's bustle has got to go.

LexFather

I'm with Mike, when you get past the grill/looks its a pretty decent vehicle.

IS-SV

Yes, ugly grill, too high price, high rate of depreciation, poor use of money.

LexBob2

Also, considering the "average" Lincoln buyer, not a vehicle on many of their shopping lists.

karxprt

Hi Guys

Interesting reading your comments about AutoPacific.

Just to set the record straight, AutoPacific's Vehicle Satisfaction Awards are the result of a national survey of new car and light truck owners. Over 42,000 owners responded to an eight page survey by mail or on the Internet. There is a battery of questions concerning importance of certain attributes of your vehicle and purchase process and the owners corresponding satisfaction with each of those attributes.

AutoPacific gathers the information, multiplies importance times satisfaction, normalizes the data to 1,000 and uses this arithmetic to determine class winners. As you have noted, there are sometimes surprising winners, but these results are the owners of the vehicles speaking, not AutoPacific simply selecting winners we like. AutoPacific collects the data, does the arithmetic and announces the results. Nothing subjective about it.

Think about it... buff books use their own subjective opinions to announce winners of various awards. Other awards are simply pulled out of the air depending on which vehicle a person or organization likes the best. AutoPacific's information is based on a large and robust sample of OWNERS responding to a very comprehensive questionnaire.

We'll stand by our methodology against anybody.

George Peterson
President
AutoPacific, Inc.
Tustin, CA

GS69

From what I can tell, people have a problem w/ the categories ... not necessarily the winner. So it is not the methodology of calculating scores for each vehicle but the method of what groups they went into ....

wmb0000

Yup, I concur

When is a Nissan Maxima a luxury car?
What category would the Lexus GS/BMW 5 Series/Mercedes E class belong in?

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

George,

Thanks for joining our forum to discuss this list, it says a lot about your organization in my opinion

As someone else mentioned, it is not so much the methodology for collecting and analyzing the data that is raising eyebrows, as much as it is the classes you chose. For example...

Since when is the Maxima a luxury car? What criteria was judged to come to that conclusion?

What is the difference between a premium mid-size car and a mid-size car? Also, for what it's worth, the Accord is now technically classified as a "Large Car" along with the Taurus, Avalon, etc.

What is the difference between these two classes? They seem nearly identical.

Once again I am left scratching my head with this one. How is the Dodge Nitro similarly sized to the Pathfinder and 4Runner?

The Ford Edge is NOT a "premium" crossover. How did AP arrive at that conclusion?

Once again, who considered the Escape to be mid-size???

The RX400h is the old generation model and has not been on sale for a while now. Why was data collected for this vehicle?


It seems that Auto Pacific considers three different vehicle classes - Luxury, Premium, and Standard. I would like to see a more concise breakdown and explanation of what constitutes to standard vs. premium, or premium vs. luxury because I think your nomenclature is very confusing for some people. Seeing Fords, Nissans, and Toyotas labeled as "premium" is rather odd to most.

Furthermore, I would like to see more explanation for how you collected the data, the timeframe, the model years, the average number of responses per vehicle, etc. All of these things lend credence to the quality of the survey and the awards that it has given. Without any further explanation, as you can already see here, people are left with several questions and begin to have second doubts.

LexFather

George,

Thanks for joining and explaining AutoPacific's position! I'll say it for a lot of people, OWNERS many times have the automotive knowledge of a twig thus they might categorize their car anywhere.

We appreciate the work done to collect the data, we just felt the categories were quite odd and if the OWNERS were influential in deciding what categories their cars go in, well it makes sense now.

Thanks!

GS69

AutoPacific Announces 2011 Vehicle Satisfaction Awards

TUSTIN, Calif., May 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- AutoPacific today announced its 15th annual Vehicle Satisfaction Awards (VSA) to help consumers make informed vehicle purchase decisions.

Carmakers are constantly improving their products and relationships with their customers. They communicate their success by citing the satisfaction of their owners. "Proof of satisfied customers is as good as gold," says George Peterson, president of AutoPacific. "We've found that more than 1/3 of new car buyers are positively influenced by objective awards based on owner ratings when deciding on a new car or truck."

AutoPacific's Vehicle Satisfaction Award is an industry benchmark for measuring how satisfied an owner is with his/her new vehicle. This study by the Southern California-based automotive research firm summarizes the results of over 68,000 new vehicle owners.

"Vehicles that score highest in the Vehicle Satisfaction Awards are delivering value and satisfaction across a wide range of attributes," says Peterson. "The winners perform well in 48 separate categories that objectively measure the ownership experience."

The vehicle - car or truck - registering highest overall satisfaction in 2011 is the Cadillac Escalade Luxury SUV. The car with the highest overall satisfaction score is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

At the manufacturer level, multiple top-ranked award winners are: Ford with 7 wins; Toyota with 4 wins; and General Motors and Hyundai with 3 wins.

"While the economy is strengthening, new vehicle buyers continue to be especially careful in selecting the perfect vehicle for their needs. AutoPacific's Vehicle Satisfaction Award will help this year's customers sort through the 262 car and truck nameplates presently available in the United States. A wise purchase decision is like money in the bank," says Peterson.

Top 2011 model year performers are:

HIGHEST SATISFACTION PREMIUM BRAND:
Lincoln

HIGHEST SATISFACTION POPULAR BRAND:
Chrysler

PASSENGER CARS:

Premium Luxury Car
Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Aspirational Luxury Car
Hyundai Genesis

Luxury Mid-Size Car
Lincoln MKZ

Large Car
Ford Taurus and Toyota Avalon (tie)

Premium Mid-Size Car
Hyundai Sonata

Mid-Size Car
Suzuki Kizashi

Premium Compact Car
Volvo C30/S40/V50

Compact Car
Hyundai Elantra

Economy Car
Honda Fit

Sports Car
Porsche 911

Sporty Car
Scion tC

Hybrid Car
Lincoln MKZ Hybrid


LIGHT TRUCKS:

Heavy Duty Pickup
Ford F-Series Super Duty

Large Light Duty Pickup
Chevrolet Avalanche

Compact Pickup
Honda Ridgeline

Luxury Sport Utility Vehicle
Cadillac Escalade

Large Sport Utility Vehicle
GMC Yukon

Premium Mid-Size Sport Utility Vehicle
Jeep Grand Cherokee

Premium Luxury Crossover SUV
Lincoln MKT

Luxury Crossover SUV
Lexus RX

Large Crossover SUV
Ford Flex

Premium Mid-Size Crossover SUV
Ford Explorer

Mid-Size Crossover SUV
Mitsubishi Outlander

Compact Crossover SUV
Kia Sportage

Minivan
Chrysler Town & Country

Hybrid Truck
Lexus RX450h Hybrid

AutoPacific is a future-oriented automotive marketing and product-consulting firm. Every year AutoPacific publishes a wide variety of syndicated studies on the automotive industry. The firm also conducts extensive proprietary research and consulting for auto manufacturers, distributors, marketers and suppliers worldwide. Company headquarters are in Tustin, California, with an affiliate office in the Detroit area.

Additional information can be found on AutoPacific's websites: AutoPacific - AutoPacific: Research & Forecasting for the Auto Industry and VehicleVoice -.

LexFather

http://www.autopacific.com/news-app/...u.no/sec./home.

spwolf

I think definitively echoes the market, right?

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

that's just 2 of the data points. toyota should be concerned it has no winners, except the RX/RXh.

spwolf

dig at Toyota, really? lol.

So Toyota and Lexus should win every survey in order to stay in business, but when it comes to beloved germans, same does not apply... in fact, it is probably better than BMW doesnt win these surveys since they are crooked anyway!!! right?


p.s. every survey that tells you that Lincoln is best overall premium brand and Chrysler is best overall brand is not relevant in my book.

mmarshall

Thanks for tuning in, Mr. Peterson (and welcome to CL) , but you're trying to make a pretty tough case here.....I don't follow your logic. How does 42,000 compare to the roughly one-million survey-responses at Consumer Reports?