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Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla

Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only American brand to crack the upper echelon, Cadillac. Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan rounded out the first ten positions. The news for domestic automakers isn't good. Aside from Caddy, the only other star-spangled automaker to score above the industry average is Chrysler. The rest of FCA, most of GM, and all of Ford fell below the line. But Pied Piper's mystery shoppers handed Tesla the biggest walloping – the company is ten full points below the next lowest brand, Volvo, and its score of 86 is 17 below the average of 103. It's baffling, considering the company's touted direct-sales model. "Tesla leaves me scratching my head," Fred O'Hagan, Pied Piper's president and CEO, told Wards Auto. "They own all of their stores, so you would think each one would be doing the same thing. But they're not. Tesla is consistent in its inconsistencies." O'Hagan added that there's a "huge variation" in Tesla's store-to-store effectiveness, and that in some cases, shoppers found showroom workers that acted more like "museum curators," Wards Auto reports. It might be popular to call Tesla the Apple of the car world, but based on Pied Piper's work, the brand has a long way to go to emulate the uniform shopping experience of an Apple Store. The news might be bad for Tesla, but even for the brands that scored below average, there's cause for celebration. Only Tesla and Mini lost points in this year's rankings, and only Mercedes and Lincoln held steady. Every other brand, including Infiniti, which topped the index for the first time, gained at least one point. The biggest improvements belong to Porsche, Land Rover, and Mitsubishi, which all jumped five points. Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index uses mystery shoppers – over 6,100 this year – from across the country to assess dealers and generate rankings from over 50 individual factors. News Source: Pied Piper via WardsAuto Green Audi BMW Cadillac Chrysler Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers study

Nissan backing off IDx, BladeGlider and Infiniti Eau Rouge amid focus shift

Nissan and Infiniti are officially under the microscope after their presentations at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show focused on the new Titan pickup and Q60 Concept, but lacked any and all mention of allegedly production-bound examples of the Q50 Eau Rouge, IDx and BladeGlider EV concepts. Automotive News reports that the lack of info on the three concept cars, which had previously heralded a more performance-minded Nissan/Infiniti, has signaled a shift in priorities at the Japanese company. Instead of driver-oriented models, emphasis is seemingly being focused more on volume offerings. Nissan was subject to a pair of high-level executive departures last year, with both Andy Palmer and Johan de Nysschen departing for Aston Martin and Cadillac, respectively. Both execs were strong proponents of more driver-oriented offerings, with Palmer championing the compact, rear-drive IDx coupe and de Nysschen backing the high-performance Q50 Eau Rouge. While Palmer has been mum on his former employer's alleged move away from performance, de Nysschen made headlines last month after calling out a Nissan vice president in a Facebook post saying he "heard a rumor that Noboru Tateishi is going to cop-out and shelve the Eau Rouge project now that I'm not there to pressure him," while adding that the VP has "more enthusiasm for 'driver's aid's,' apparently, than 'driver's cars.'" AN reached out to Infiniti, with North American VP Michael Bartsch telling the publication that no decision had been reached about the Eau Rouge and that the company was more focused on rebuilding its core portfolio. Featured Gallery Nissan IDx Nismo View 34 Photos Related Gallery Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept View 24 Photos Related Gallery Nissan BladeGlider Concept View 22 Photos News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Nissan, Infiniti Rumormill Infiniti Nissan Coupe Luxury Performance Sedan infiniti q50 infiniti q50 eau rouge nissan bladeglider concept

2018 Ford Expedition vs other big SUVs: How it compares on paper

With our Alex Kierstein rightly impressed in his first-drive review of the new 2018 Ford Expedition, we decided to dig a little deeper into the numbers, and we came up with the spreadsheet below to highlight how the new 2018 Expedition compares on paper to its main full-size SUV competitors: the 2018 Chevy Tahoe and Suburban (and therefore the 2018 GMC Yukon), 2018 Toyota Sequoia and 2018 Nissan Armada. We also threw in the new, even bigger 2018 Chevrolet Traverse since, as you'll see, its massive dimensions should put it on the radar for anyone who needs loads of passenger and cargo space but doesn't care as much about towing. A few notes about the chart above. First, the 6.2-liter V8 that's included with the new-for-2018 Tahoe RST trim level is the standard engine on the GMC Yukon Denali. You can apply most of the Tahoe's numbers to the entire Yukon and Yukon XL lineup. Second, though we highlighted categories where the Traverse led, we also highlighted the runner-up full-size SUV, since this was ultimately about that segment. Traverse numbers are broadly applicable to the new Buick Enclave. Related Video: Chevrolet Ford GMC Nissan Toyota SUV Comparison consumer ford expedition gmc yukon chevy traverse toyota sequoia nissan armada chevrolet tahoe ford expedition max