Germans say `ja' to Japanese cars

Japanese carmakers have trounced their rivals in a poll of German customer satisfaction, beating several quality-conscious German producers on their own turf.

DaimlerChrysler's flagship Mercedes brand languished in 31st place in the ADAC-AutoMarxX annual customer satisfaction poll - up one place from last year - while Volkswagen was last in 33rd place.

Mercedes nevertheless defended first place in the poll's overall rankings, which are based on six different criteria such as customer satisfaction and brand image.

Volkswagen stayed in sixth place overall, while Toyota became the first foreign manufacturer ever to take the No 2 overall ranking.

Japanese carmakers' have made steady inroads to the western European market and the German satisfaction survey gave them eight of the top 10 places.

Only luxury carmaker Porsche at rank five and General Motors' unit Saab in ninth were able to crack the Japanese dominance, led by Toyota, Subaru, Honda and Mazda.

Toyota tied with BMW for second place in the overall rankings, followed by Porsche and VW premium division Audi.

The poll showed wide gaps between customer satisfaction and perceptions of carmakers' image.

"German brands traditionally have an advantage when it comes to image. This assures their market success for the time being," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the Centre for Automotive Research (CAR) at Gelsenkirchen University.

Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche and VW took the first five spots in the image rankings, and Toyota climbed to eighth from 10th.

- REUTERS