Wheels24.co.za posted an article today that showed the MINI Cooper was the top choice among passenger cars in South Africa, beating out Mercedes-Benz, which was at the top for the past 3 years:
“Mini and Mitsubishi may have been voted the top buys in the latest Synovate study, but a few local manufacturers experienced a dramatic fall from grace.
The study measures customer satisfaction in four categories, including purchasing of a passenger vehicle and light commercial vehicle, and the servicing of a passenger vehicle and light commercial.
Synovate surveys have been conducted for the last 16 years. The latest findings are for the period January to December 2006.
The Mini Cooper was the top Gold performer when purchasing a passenger vehicle. The little car moved up to the top of the rank following Mercedes-Benz’s virtual dominance at the top of the chart for the past three years.”
“Mercedes-Benz moved down to number four behind Mini, Volvo and Chevrolet. In the previous study, covering January to December 2005, Mini received a silver award and was ranked 12th.
Gold winners in this category all scored above 91.5 %.
Former Gold winner, Volkswagen, slumped from ninth to 12th, and shares its score of 91.3 % with Land Rover, which scored its highest result in three years.
After bubbling under for a few years, Toyota was voted best when it comes to servicing a passenger car. After leading the group for two years, and finishing second behind Nissan in last year’s study, BMW is now listed at seven on the table.
There have been significant shifts in the LCV segment, with Mitsubishi at the top in the purchasing stakes, while Toyota and Nissan were the only manufacturers to score above the industry average of 80.8 %.
Results are endorsed by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) and reflect their intention to encourage competitive performance in the South African automotive market.
“We can look forward to even higher levels of satisfaction into the future as the traditional players as well as the newer entrants consolidate their infrastructure and capacity to deliver ever-improving levels of satisfaction”, said Richard Rice, automotive client services director.”