Welcome back ladies and gentlemen; I hope you all had a fantastic June weekend and took advantage of the balmy temperatures blanketing much of the country.  To kick things off this morning comes a story we missed last week, one which reveals a marked improvement in Mercedes' J.D. Power rankings. 

In the latest customer survey, the luxury brand managed to jump some 20 spots from 25th to fifth, and in addition earned a silver J.D. Power award for their plant.  Even more notable, three Mercedes models - the S-, SL- and E-Class - each received gold J.D. Power awards for quality in their respective classes, a clear indicator that Mercedes' initiative to improve customer satisfaction and product quality is indeed having an impact.

While this undoubtedly won't be enough to persuade rice boys to make the switch to Germany, it does draw into question how a publication like Consumer Reports decided to rank Mercedes last out of every automaker they researched.

To learn more, keep reading for the full press release detailing Mercedes rankings in the newest J.D. Power survey.

Enjoy.


OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


Latest J.D. Power quality study from the US: Three gold awards for best product quality

Stuttgart, Jun 07, 2007
With three gold awards for the best in vehicle quality in the respective market segment, Mercedes-Benz was one of the most successful car brands in this year’ customer survey conducted by the US market research firm of J.D. Power and Associates. In its overall placing, the automotive brand rose to fifth place and achieved a top ranking in production quality. This reflects on the initiative launched by Mercedes-Benz to improve customer satisfaction and product quality.

This year, the E-, S- and SL-Class were recipients of the gold “J.D. Power Award”. These Mercedes models are thus considered to be the highest quality vehicles in their market segments. The Mercedes plant in also received a “J.D. Power Award” in silver.

In particular, the most important factors for Mercedes’ excellent overall performance were the launch of the new S-Class, the new M-Class and the new generations of the E- and SL-Class. According to the study, Mercedes-Benz showed the strongest improvement against the previous year.

In the annual survey, American market researchers ask new car customers about their satisfaction within the first 90 days, and rate the vehicles’ quality of production and design quality.

Copyright © 2007, DaimlerChrysler AG