Dealer satisfaction: GM at top, Stellantis at bottom
When Mary Barra took the helm of General Motors, she almost immediately started working on increasing the quality of the company’s dealer network. PR people have been tight-lipped on how this was done, but the results are clear in the latest J.D. Power study.
Every General Motors brand (shown in bright green) ended up in the top half of the J.D. Power mass-market brands segment of the 2021 U.S. Customer Service Index Study™. Cadillac was in the upper half of the premium brand survey, handily beating Lincoln. While Mini took the top level of the mass-market brands, they are a premium-priced car for their size, and the company is part of BMW. Buick also was one of the top two brands in initial and long-term quality.
Ford (lavender) ended up below average in dealer quality, while Lincoln was a little above average in the premium sector. Stellantis inherited poor ratings: Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler, and Ram (bright blue) were all clustered at the bottom, while Alfa Romeo was, by a pretty good margin, the worst of the premium brands. Tesla, Fiat, and Maserati were not included in the rankings.
Clark Westfield grew up fixing up and driving past-their-prime American cars, including various GM and Mopar V8s. He has ghostwritten auto news for the last few years, lives in Farmingdale, New York, and can be reached at +1.516-531-4021.