Lexus on top for car manufacturer satisfaction
New research from Roy Morgan shows Japanese car manufacturer Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus has emerged with market-leading customer satisfaction of 98%, up 4% points on a year ago, for the period of the 12 months to May 2019.
Lexus is just ahead of Volvo which has had the biggest year-over-year jump up by 5% points to 95%, and 2019 Roy Morgan Car Manufacturer Satisfaction Award winner Isuzu UTE on 94%.
Also in equal third position are Subaru, Mazda and Hyundai all with a customer satisfaction of 94% and rounding out the top 10 are Audi, Toyota, Kia, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai all on 93%.
Despite high performance of market leaders overall car manufacturer satisfaction is down
Overall, satisfaction with car manufacturers was 92% in May, down from 93% in the same period in 2018. However, despite the slight dip, customer satisfaction for car manufacturers remains amongst the highest of any of the 32 industries that Roy Morgan measures and reports on every month.
These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of over 50,000 consumers conducted in the 12 months ended May 2019, including in-depth personal interviews with over 40,000 car drivers.
Leading Car Manufacturers by customer satisfaction
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), 12 months ended May 2018, n = 38,677; 12 months ended May 2019, n = 37,607. Base: Australians who are drivers. 1. Very or fairly satisfied. 2. Includes brands not shown.
The leading car manufacturers that showed declines in satisfaction had only minimal movement, with Suzuki and Mercedes-Benz down 2% points from a year ago, while Isuzu UTE, Subaru, Mazda, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai all declined by a single point.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan says:
“The Roy Morgan car manufacturers’ satisfaction data used in this release has become the industry standard on which the highly prized annual ‘Roy Morgan Car Manufacturers Satisfaction Award’ is based.
“Lexus has had a very successful few years in the category winning the Annual Award for four consecutive years from 2014-17 and with a customer satisfaction rating of 98% in May and multiple monthly award wins already in 2019 is mounting a strong challenge again this year.
“Defending champion Isuzu UTE won their first Annual Roy Morgan Car Manufacturer Satisfaction Award in 2018 and in equal third place on 94% in May just behind 2013 winner Volvo on 95% is again right in the mix for consecutive annual awards in the category.
“In fact there’s very little between the major competitors in the industry and only 5% points separate the top dozen car manufacturers in May who all exceeded the industry average of 92% for the month.
“What the leaderboard in May does show is that a variety of car manufacturers are performing well despite targeting different segments of the consumer market. Luxury car maker Lexus, the family appeal of the dependable Volvo and the ‘tradie friendly’ Isuzu UTE all target distinct markets that would on the surface have little direct competition.
“The data on car satisfaction used in this release is only a small part of what is available in the Roy Morgan ‘Automotive Satisfaction’ report, which also includes extensive profiles of the drivers of all the major car manufacturers.
“To really understand how Australian drivers feel about their cars, ask Roy Morgan. Our deep data provides insight into drivers of all kinds of cars, whether they are brand new, or have been around the block on more than a few occasions. Whether they are used primarily in inner urban areas, for long haul country drives, or to cart the kids to soccer practice on a Saturday morning Roy Morgan can tell you how Australians feel about their cars and if they’d be likely to buy the same car again.”
For comments or more information please contact:
Roy Morgan - Enquiries
Office: +61 (03) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
