Toyota and Mercedes-Benz Earn Top Customer Experience Ratings for Auto Dealers

We recently released the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings that ranks the customer experience of 294 companies across 20 industries based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Toyota and Mercedes-Benz deliver the best customer experience amongst auto dealers, according to the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings, an annual ranking of companies based on a survey of 10,000 U.S. consumers.

Out of the 20 auto dealers included in this study, Toyota earned the highest customer experience score with a rating of 66%, which put it in 89^th place overall out of 294 companies across 20 industries. Mercedes-Benz came in a close second with a 65% rating and an overall rank of 100^th.

Toyota is no stranger to the top; it has been the highest-scoring auto dealer for three out of the past five years and come in second place the other two years. Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, has historically stayed in the middle of the pack, ascending to the top this year by virtue of being one of only three companies whose scores improved over the past year. The other two companies whose ratings went up since 2015 are Kia and Audi.

At the other end of the spectrum, Volkswagen received the lowest score in the industry with a rating of 44%, which put it in 278^th place overall. Volkswagen’s score tumbled a dramatic 17 percentage points over the last year—the biggest decline of any company in any industry.

Overall, the rental car industry averaged a 57% rating in the 2016 Temkin Experience Ratings and tied for 12^th place out of 20 industries. The average rating of the industry decreased by seven percentage points between 2015 and 2016, dropping from 64% to 57%.

Mercedes-Benz (+2 points), Kia (+1 point), and Audi (+1 point) were the only auto dealers to improve their scores between 2015 and 2016. Volkswagen (-17 points), BMW (-15 points), GM (-13 points), and Cadillac (-12 points) declined by the most percentage points between 2015 and 2016.