BMW, Ford, Hyundai Financial Services Rank Highest with Consumers
Dealing with an automaker's finance arm shouldn't be a harrowing experience, but it sometimes is. Recently, J.D. Power came out with their 2008 Consumer Financing Satisfaction Survey, which measures customer satisfaction with new vehicle finance services according to four criteria: application approval process; customer contact; payment/billing process; and provider offering.
The rankings are divided into categories: Luxury loan, luxury lease, non-luxury loan, and non-luxury lease. BMW took both luxury categories, while Hyundai took the non-luxury loan and Ford the non-luxury lease. Interestingly, Honda ranked third (which is still quite good) in three of the four categories.
I noticed that Toyota and Nissan, which I personally found to be a pain to deal with on my own vehicles, were nowhere to be found. Just goes to show you; 27,964 surveyed consumers can't be wrong.
So for now, forget about the dealership experience. What's your experience been with the finance companies? Good, bad or otherwise?
For full survey results, click here.
- Posted by
- Joanne Helperin December 10, 2008, 6:00 AM
- Permalink
- Categories:
- Auto Leasing, Car Buying, Car Loans and Financing, Car Negotiating
- Technorati Tags:
- BMW, Financial Services, Ford, Hyundai, J.D. Power, Nissan, Toyota
My wife and I have had VW's and Audi's for the last 10 years and VCI/AFS has been great to deal with. But then again, other than the initial application at the dealer, setting up auto pay for our leases and the lease end process, there is rarely a time when I need to contact them.
NMAC (Nissan) has also been uneventful for our Murano as well.
Joanne, what kinds of issues have you had with NMAC and TFS?
When leasing my Nissan, the dealer screwed up the date of purchase on the contract, so Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation started billing me at the wrong time, which would have resulted in my having to pay everything two weeks early. I was very concerned that I would end up paying two weeks extra overall on the car. Their customer service department was one of those nightmare call centers, and every person I passed through made me repeat the same information over and over again. In the end, it was resolved, but it took hours longer than it should have and if I had gotten a smarter person on the phone to begin with, I would have been given the information that I needed and we could have settled it right away, without a lot of back and forth with the dealer.
With Toyota it wasn't that big a deal. I wanted to extend my lease, the way I had done with my Honda during an earlier lease. Toyota said they would give me a couple months, but then I had to buy it or give it back. While that's not terrible, it forced my hand and they weren't pleasant on the phone.
I've had a great experience with Toyota Financial for the loan on my '04 Camry. Only 3 payments left now!
I should have added that Toyota was very courteous and helpful on the phone the one time I inquired about transferring ownership of the car to my son.