Continuing Satisfaction From Michelin In J. D. Power Study

J.D. Power & Associates has released its 2001 Replacement Tire and Retailer Customer Satisfaction Study and Michelin comes out top as offering the highest customer satisfaction among both passenger-vehicle owners (cars and compact vans) and light truck owners (pick-ups, SUVs and full-size vans).

This is the tenth year of the study and Michelin has been named top for seven consecutive years in the light truck category and for the past three years in the passenger vehicle sector. J.D.

Power says that key reasons given for purchasing a Michelin included reliability, durability, handling and performance, while purchasers of other brands were more price-oriented. In the passenger vehicle sector, the next best brands were (in order): Toyo, Pirelli and Uniroyal (tied), Cooper and Goodyear. Brands which were rated at, or below, the industry average were (in alphabetical order): BFGoodrich, Bridgestone, Douglas, Dunlop, Firestone, General, Kelly and Sears.

For light truck owners, the best brands behind Michelin were (in order): BFGoodrich, Cooper and Goodyear (third equal). Brands rated below par were (alphabetical order): Firestone, General and Uniroyal. The survey also includes customer satisfaction ratings for tyre retailers and the best-performer, for the second year in succession, was the Pacific Northwest’s Les Schwab Tire Centers, with half of its customers awarding 10 points out of 10 across the 15 categories included in the study.

The J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Study is an independent survey, based on responses of more than 9,500 US motorists who have recently purchased a replacement tyre and is just one of many projects undertaken by the global marketing information services company annually.