For the third straight year, Audi topped the J.D. Power's 2012 China Sales Satisfaction Index Study by scoring 898 points out of a possible 1,000 points. Audi is trailed by Dongfeng Nissan, a joint venture between Nissan Motor Co. and China's Dongfeng Motor Corp., with 897 points. Rounding up the top three is Beijing Hyundai, a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Co. and China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp., after scoring 891 points. According to the study results J.D. Power released this month, all of the carmakers scoring above the industry average of 841 points are joint ventures of global brands or imported global brands. Domestic carmakers, however, could only match the industry average at best, with Chery scoring 841 points. All other domestic brands scored below the industry average.
According to J.D. Power, the industry-wide sales satisfaction in China dropped six points overall in 2012. The firm attributed the decline in overall sales satisfaction among new-vehicle owners in China to heightened sales pressure as well as a lack of experienced dealership staff. After years of fast growth, passenger vehicle sales in China began to drop considerably in 2011.
Despite that, carmakers still added production capacity and opened new dealerships, leading to increased inventories at dealerships and intense pressure to sell vehicles, according to Liza Wang, a J.D. Power analyst in Shanghai. Wang remarked that almost 80 percent of dealers revealed that high inventories are their greatest challenge, which means that they are under immense pressure to sell more vehicles at a faster pace. Wang quipped that this has had a negative impact on the quality of the purchase experience for buyers of new vehicles in China
