Awd Mark Levinson Audio System W/navigation & Camera on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Buyers resent low inventories, prices over MSRP, study says

Vehicle inventory low, vehicle transaction prices high, customers fretting … welcome, J.D. Power, to the era of supply and demand. In a recently published survey from one of the auto industryÂ’s top analytical firms, findings show that customers' satisfaction with vehicle purchases in the United States this year has dipped for the first time in 10 years. The 2022 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study found that overall sales satisfaction has dropped to 786 (on a 1,000-point scale) from 789 in 2021. In that year, higher than expected trade-in values softened the effect of new vehicle price increases. But in 2022, on top of trade-in prices shrinking, many dealers elected to charge more than the ManufacturerÂ’s Suggested Retail Price, a factor that did not sit well with buyers. “When dealers charge more than MSRP, particularly with long-term loyal customers, they risk a potential long-term negative effect on customer advocacy and service business," said Chris Sutton, vice president of automotive retail at J.D. Power. Satisfaction among buyers who paid more than sticker price is 757, while satisfaction among those who paid the sticker price or less is 850, the Power report said. The lack of dealership inventory was also a customer irritant, J.D. Power found, a point that automakers and their dealers may want to consider. Many have maintained, or considered maintaining, a smaller inventory in the wake of the pandemic, keeping costs down and driving more customers toward factory orders. Regarding those consumers shopping for electric vehicles, the survey said that more than a third of them “failed to get instruction on EV charging before they left the dealership, which notably affects satisfaction.” Said Sutton, “Salespeople donÂ’t need to show gas-powered vehicle buyers how to fill their tank, but they do need to show EV buyers how to charge their vehicle.” There are positives to the Power conclusions, however, especially for Alfa Romeo dealers. The Italian brand ranked highest in customer satisfaction among premium brands with a score of 833, with Porsche a very close second (831) and Lexus (819) third. Alfa is on something of a roll these days, with its compact Tonale crossover due for release in the spring, and a new sports car in the works. Meanwhile, in PowerÂ’s “mainstream brand”” segment, Buick ranked first with a score of 825, followed by Dodge (816) and Subaru (804), all performing higher than the industry average.

Lexus in no hurry to be a big player in China

For a while now, China's spiraling wealth, population and development has had the world's luxury automakers in an expansionist fervor, with many executives exhibiting the sort of gleefully maniacal behavior historically reserved for gold-rush prospectors. Yet Toyota, of all companies, is exercising a surprising amount of caution in the Asian nation.
As The Wall Street Journal notes, Toyota's premium brand, Lexus, sold all of 64,000 vehicles in China last year, while BMW cleared its books of 326,000. In fact, it didn't even bother entering the market until 2005, while rival Audi built its first car in the market a decade and a half earlier. Even now, Lexus doesn't build any vehicles in China, and with the country's notoriously high tariffs on imports, that's a major disadvantage. Yet the business daily quotes Lexus executive vice president Mark Templin as saying that the brand is nowhere near ready to start building cars in the market. "We're not having those discussions about when we're going to go to China... We have a lot of work to do before we get to that point."
Part of that work includes establishing a more expansive dealer network - Lexus only had 99 stores as of 2012, while rival Mercedes-Benz had over two-and-a-half times as many, and it's still expanding. Adding a lot of dealers without having a goodly number of competitively priced offerings for them to sell may seem like an odd strategy, but Templin tells the WSJ that the goal is to "cultivate our image for quality and customer service and let the customers that we have go tell that story for us."

Lexus recalling 3,000 NX 200t CUVs for faulty brake system part

Lexus is recalling about 3,000 examples of the 2015 NX 200t in the US because of possible damage to the ABS actuator during assembly. On vehicles with the faulty part, the anti-lock brakes, traction control and stability control might not function properly. If the ABS is activated while driving, it could cause "a loss of vehicle stability," according to the company. No crashes, injuries, or fatalities have been reported. According to company spokesperson Cindy Knight to Autoblog, affected owners will receive notification by mail of this problem in early July. Dealers will inspect the actuator on the NX200t and will replace it, if necessary. Related Video: LEXUS RECALLS CERTAIN MODEL YEAR 2015 NX VEHICLES TORRANCE, Calif., May 27, 2015 – Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. today announced that it is conducting a safety recall of approximately 3,000 model year 2015 Lexus NX 200t vehicles. The involved vehicles are equipped with an Anti-Lock Braking system (ABS), Traction Control System (TRAC), and Vehicle Stability Control System (VSC) which are controlled by the ABS actuator. There is a possibility that a component inside the actuator could be damaged during assembly and later not operate properly. Under some driving conditions, if the ABS is activated, this could cause a loss of vehicle stability, which can increase the risk of a crash. To date, Toyota is not aware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities caused by this condition. All known owners of the involved Lexus vehicles will be notified by first class mail. Lexus dealers will inspect the ABS actuator and if necessary replace it with a new one. Information about automotive recalls, including but not limited to the list of involved vehicles, is subject to change over time. For the most up-do-date recall information, customers should contact Toyota Customer Service at 1-800-331-4331, or Lexus Customer Service at 1-800-255-3987. Customers can also access current information on open safety recalls for their vehicles by visiting www.toyota.com/recall or http://www.safercar.gov/ and entering their Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). ###