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J.D. Power: Mini, Lexus again offer most satisfying sales experience

JD Power has released its annual Sales Satisfaction Index Study, and once again Mini and Lexus have taken top honors. Overall, buyers are more satisfied with the auto-buying sales experience than they were last year, with those surveyed reporting an average score of 664 points on a 1,000-point scale. That's up from 648 in 2011. Dealer satisfaction also increased by five points over last year as well.
All told, Lexus brought home an index score of 737, which was high enough to put it atop the luxury brands for the second year in a row. JD Power says Infiniti came in second in that category with a score of 728 and Cadillac rounded out the podium with it's rating of 725. Speaking of Infiniti, that brand saw the single largest jump in sales satisfaction of any brand on the survey, popping up 52 index points over 2011.
Among mass-market brands, Mini ranked highest with a score of 712, followed closely by Buick with 706 and GMC farther down the line with 683. You can check out the full press release below for more information.

Buick applies the GS treatment to an electric Electra

A sporty Buick in the 21st century? A contradiction, some might think. But the product planners at Buick — usually the most conservative brand in General MotorsÂ’ stable — apparently think otherwise. Earlier this month, GM filed an application with the United States Patent office for the Electra GS nameplate, pairing the “Gran Sport” badge with a name that dates back to the first Electra model that debuted more than six decades ago. GM showed an Electra EV concept in 2020 in China and a sleek Buick Electra-X concept SUV this summer. As part of its plans to go to a fully electric lineup by 2030, Buick announced in June that an electric Electra — nice fit, no? — would be shown later this year and released in 2024. The addition of the prestigious Gran Sport badge refers back to the Buick muscle cars of the mid-Sixties, including the Skylark GS and the Riviera GS. It since has been applied to other Buicks, including the Regal GS. The brand has also indicated that it will launch at least two electric SUVs next year, but that plan might not entice some dealers to continue to sell and service Buicks: GM last month said it would offer dealerships in the United States buyouts if they balked at investing in the considerable upgrades required to service EVs. “Not everyone necessarily wants to make that journey, depending on where theyÂ’re located or the level of expenditure that the transition will demand,” Buick Global Vice President Duncan Aldred told the Wall Street Journal. “So if they want to exit the Buick franchise, then we will give them monetary assistance to do so.”       

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.