Archive for the ‘car buying’ Category

Attention, shoppers: new cars are more affordable today than they've been in over five years. According to Comerica Bank's Auto Affordability Index, it now takes the average family 21.9 weeks of income to pay off an average-priced vehicle. Sadly, that's not because household income has risen, but because the average cost of a light vehicle has dropped to $25,500. Comerica's data comes from the third quarter of 2009, which of course included Cash-for-Clunkers; however, while analysts say that C4C did impact prices, auto affordability had been improving long before the federal program kicked in. Customers are now paying less for vehicles than...

General Motors' new "60-Day Satisfaction Guarantee" (pitched by new CEO Ed Whitacre in the TV spot above) has sparked a good bit of comment, both positive and negative. Those in support of the policy argue that GM has finally taken notice of customer-oriented programs offered by its competitors (e.g. Hyundai Assurance), which have proven popular with the general public and often stimulated sales without hurting the bottom line.

On the other hand, detractors argue that the gist of Hyundai's Assurance program is that the company will take back cars if the buyer loses his or her job. GM's plan, on the other hand, allows customers to return...

According to new data released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, U.S. auto buyers have become happier with their vehicles over the past 15 years. Between 1996 and 2009, auto customer satisfaction has risen by five percentage points, from a 79% average to 84%, with the bulk of that increase coming in the last five years.

At the top of the current auto industry satisfaction list, we find two of the usual suspects: Lexus and Cadillac. However Buick and Lincoln-Mercury earn the third and fourth spots, with Honda and Toyota -- usually the darlings of such surveys -- clocking in at fifth and seventh, respectively.

All the way at the...