"Mercedes-Benz has the most satisfied customers"

This is fresh news dated June 25, 2009 and thought I would share with the W210 audience at the forum. This J.D. Powers report was done in Germany and covers the CLK and E Class (W211):



Stuttgart – There is no automobile that satisfies its owners more than the Mercedes-Benz CLK. This is shown by a major survey on customer satisfaction among car buyers conducted by the world-famous J. D. Power Index. In this very informative study, first place in the luxury class was taken by the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. At the same time the business saloon was given a silver award for outstanding test results by the motoring magazine AUTO TEST. Germany’s most satisfied car drivers therefore sit at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz.

Customers are the people who know a product best – this is the working principle of the globally active market research organisation J. D. Power, founded in 1968 and based in Los Angeles, which regularly examines the satisfaction levels of automobile owners. For the 2009 J. D. Power Report it conducted a first-time online survey of 16,425 car drivers in Germany to record their experiences with their car. The respondents had to have owned their car for around two years and have covered around 30,000 kilometres with it. This meant that the experience gained over a total of almost 500 million kilometres could be assessed. The assessment criteria were quality/reliability, attractiveness, service and operating costs, enabling the strengths and weaknesses of the individual car models to be reliably recorded.

113 models divided into eight categories were considered in the 2009 J. D. Power Report, which is seen as the definitive buyer’s guide. First place in the overall ranking for all categories was taken by the Mercedes-Benz CLK, which also emerged the winner in the sports car ranking. In the luxury category, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (211 series) prevailed against the opposition and took first place in this ranking.

The results of the J. D. Power study were also taken into account when the motoring publication AUTO TEST decided the winners of its 2009 awards. The decisions were also based on more than 500 tests and buyer reports by the magazine, as well as reliability studies by TüV Rhineland and Eurotax Schwacke. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class received the silver AUTO TEST 2009 award.

The new E-Class presented in March 2009 has everything it takes to defend this top position in the customer satisfaction index. The engineers in Stuttgart covered around 34 million test kilometres with the new E-Class well before the market launch, for example. Like its predecessor, it also offers a high level of long-distance comfort, high-grade materials in the interior, a standard of finish that shows great attention to detail, perfect ergonomics and a unique combination of driver assistance systems. Independent analysts have already confirmed that the new E-Class is the car with the best value retention in its class.