July 17, 2020
Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. Image credit: Mercedes-Benz
German automaker Mercedes-Benz posted the highest overall U.S. customer satisfaction among luxury automakers’ Web sites measured by market researcher J. D. Power.
Mercedes-Benz scored 850 on a 1,000-point scale, slight ahead of Land Rover’s 847 and BMW’s 846 on J. D. Power’s 2020 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study for the summer. The COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdowns of dealerships made customers more willing to buy their vehicles online, making Web sites key in car selection.
“There is no mistaking that the pandemic has put a sizable dent in the automotive market,” said Jon Sundberg, senior manager of digital solutions at Troy, MI-based J.D. Power, in a statement.
“As government regulations have affected the ability for people to go into a dealership on top of people becoming wary about venturing out to a dealership to purchase a car, it is more imperative now than ever that manufacturers better equip their online retailing presence to cater to this change,” he said.
J. D. Power’s Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study—Summer, initially released in 1999, is based on responses from 13,451 vehicle PC and smartphone shoppers who indicate they will be in the market for a new vehicle within the next 24 months. The study was fielded in April and May.
J. D. Power Luxury Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation Study—Summer 2020. Source: J. D. Power
Sight unseen, site seen
Per J. D. Power, 65 percent of automotive shoppers’ decision to buy a vehicle was affected. Forty percent of shoppers delayed making a new vehicle purchase.
Honda’s Acura, Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln, General Motors Co.’s Cadillac, Toyota Motors’ Lexus and Nissan’s Infiniti all scored above the luxury vehicle index’s average score of 835.
Surprisingly, Audi, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Volvo, Hyundai’s Genesis and Tesla scored below the segment average, according to J. D. Power.
What this points is the work that automakers have to put in to make make their online and mobile interfaces more user-friendly as car shoppers turn to the Internet and digital configurators to shop and buy cars.
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