All About Japan Autos

A new study says that if you want to be satisfied with your new car purchase, you should buy American.

The Chicago Sun-Times writes, “Domestic car manufacturers top the list of a customer-satisfaction report being published Tuesday for the first time in the study’s 15-year history,” and adds, ” The 2010 Auto Industry Report gives Ford and General Motors the top spots, with Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury a score of 89 of 100 — its best score ever — and GM’s Buick a close second with a score of 88, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.”

In a press release, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index explains that in the study, “Automobile satisfaction dips 2.4% from an all-time industry high to a score of 82 on ACSI’s 0-100 scale, but Ford and General Motors are holding steady and their Lincoln-Mercury and Buick nameplates take the lead for the first time ever. Chrysler, however,continues to underperform, with two of its three divisions at the bottom.”

The Wall Street Journal adds, “This was the first time U.S. auto makers have held the two top spots in the survey. BMW, Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz all finished together with an 86% average.”

While the top U.S. brands finished just three points ahead from the best-performing imports, The Chicago Sun-Times points out that “customer satisfaction with Japanese and Korean cars dropped the most from last year’s survey, largely due to vehicle recalls . . . Indeed, nine of the 10 models with a higher-than-average proportion of recalls — Nissan being the exception — saw customer satisfaction fall significantly.”

Despite ups and downs of various manufacturers, overall, Autoblog says there is one very big bright spot. “The auto industry as a whole averaged 82 points – well ahead of the average of 75.9 for the entire U.S. economy.”

If you’re in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year’s best cars as well as this month’s best car deals.