Mazda tops driver satisfaction report

Mazda has narrowly slipped ahead of Volvo to take outright honours in a survey of owner satisfaction conducted by Roy Morgan Research (RMR).

The market researcher's 'Automotive Satisfaction Report' was compiled from 40,000 interviews over the course of the year ending July, 2017. It's a follow-up to the 2016 report, which placed Mazda fourth, after Lexus, Skoda and Isuzu Ute.

For 2017, Mazda overtook all three of those brands (out of 24 brands surveyed), but so too did Volvo. And the Swedish prestige brand's result was all the more impressive for coming so far from behind, a 3.8 per cent improvement from the previous year. Volvo finished up with a 95.2 per cent result, just pipped by Mazda on 95.3 per cent. Mazda's performance for 2017 was an improvement of just 0.2 per cent from last year.

Although Mazda's sales for the year to date are second to Toyota, the brand is much more reliant on private sales to achieve its volumes. Toyota, nearly 73,000 sales ahead of Mazda for 2017 so far, is not as well regarded by its customers, according to RMR. Its satisfaction rating in the report was 94.6 per cent, leaving it in sixth place. However, that places Toyota ahead of Mercedes-Benz (94.5) and BMW (94.3).

RMR points out that the top 20 brands (which is most of them surveyed) were separated by just 3.1 per cent in the report. For the reporting period, the fastest moving brands were Renault, Peugeot, Volvo, BMW and Volkswagen. The lowest four brands in the survey – all below 90 per cent satisfaction – were Ford (89.8), Holden (89.3), Jeep (88.9) and Daihatsu (85.9). Daihatsu hasn't sold new cars in Australia since 2005.

Some of the tied results thrown up in the survey include Renault's 5.1 per cent gain to draw level with Audi on 94.5, and Volkswagen's 2.5 per cent increase, placing it on equal footing with Kia at 93.9.

"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," says Norman Morris, industry communications director at RMR.

"This research has shown that very little currently separates the satisfaction of the major players in this market, presenting a problem in how to obtain a competitive advantage on this important metric."

Automotive Satisfaction Report rankings
Mazda – 95.3% (+0.2%)
Volvo – 95.2% (+3.8%)
Lexus – 95.0% (-2.5%)
Skoda – 94.8% (-1.0%)
Isuzu UTE – 94.7% (-0.7%)
Toyota – 94.6% (+0.2%)
Mercedes-Benz – 94.5% (+0.2%)
BMW – 94.4% (+3.7%)
Peugeot – 94.3% (+4.7%)
Subaru – 94.3% (no change)
Audi – 94.2% (+2.0%)
Renault – 94.2% (+5.1%)
Suzuki – 94.1% (-0.4%)
Volkswagen – 93.9% (+2.5%)
Kia – 93.9% (+2.1%)
Hyundai – 93.8% (+0.1%)
Land Rover – 93.3% (-0.6%)
Honda – 93.2% (-1.3%)
Nissan – 92.3% (+0.5%)
Mitsubishi – 92.2% (-0.6%)
Ford – 89.8% (+0.1%)
Holden – 89.3% (+0.5%)
Jeep – 88.9% (-5.2%)
Daihatsu – 85.9% (-5.1%)