Germans and their Cars

ADAC is Germany's premier autobahn road service organization.  When ADAC speaks on cars....people stop and listen.

This week, ADAC published a customer satisfaction survey.  The curious thing is that the Germans are most happy with..... Subaru cars.  Not Volkswagen.  Not Porsche.  Not Opel.  Not Audi.

At the bottom of this satisfaction survey?  France's Renault.

I would be the first to admit that Germans have high expectations.  If a German owned a Chevy and had to visit the dealer more than once in an entire year...he'd be furious.  If some problem continued with a car and required three visits in a 60-day period....they'd never buy from that company again....and they'd tell their neighbors far and wide of the experience.

I worked with an American a few years ago who had a five-year old Renault.  About every six months...the car went into the shop for something.  He liked the power.  He liked the compact nature of the car.  And he eventually got to know his neighborhood mechanic by his first name.

What surprised me is that BMW or Mercedes didn't take the top spot.  Maybe they were just expecting "more" and actually got a five-star car instead.

So what should you take away from this survey of ADAC?  It was made to measure your happiness with gas mileage, dependability, and general driving comfort....and some minor-league Japanese car won.  I should add that there aren't that many Subaru dealers in Germany.....and their sales don't match up to any of the top six franchises.  So they must be doing something right.