Jazz Is More Satisfying!

Honda's supermini is top rated model in the 2004 J.D. Power Study

• Honda Jazz is the highest ranked individual model in the Study and number one in the Small Car segment
• Other Honda models all ranked within top 25 (from 145 models listed)
• Honda is fifth placed brand overall in the Study
• Honda scores major improvement in Ownership Costs

It may be Honda’s smallest car, but the Jazz is big on owner satisfaction. This week, it emerges as top rated model in the 2004 J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction Study – published in the June issue of What Car? magazine. It’s the second consecutive year that a Honda has topped the J.D. Power chart, following the Logo’s success in last year’s Study.

The Jazz achieves an overall Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) a full three per cent above the next best supermini, winning over more happy customers than any other single model, even including those from prestige brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar and Lexus.

Jazz customers were happy with every aspect of their vehicle with the model gaining high scores in all areas – vehicle quality and appeal, dealer service and ownership costs. The model also achieved one of the lowest incidence of problems, being one of only three vehicles to get below a single reported problem per vehicle.

Other Honda cars also performed strongly in the Study with the Civic, HR-V and CR-V all featuring in the top 20 for overall CSI ranking and the previous model Accord (rated 24th) just outside. All were towards the top of their segment enabling Honda to improve its customer satisfaction this year and thus maintain its fifth position in the J.D. Power Study.

This year’s J.D. Power results are based on a study of "51" and "02" registered vehicles (those sold between Sept 2001 and August 2002), following a questionnaire mailed to a random sample of 90,000 UK owners. The overall response was sufficient to achieve a (50+) sample from 145 individual car models and 33 brands.

The study asked owners to evaluate their experience on a series of questions. Each question carries a different weight based on its relationship with the respective satisfaction measure; each measure also carries a weight based on its relationship with overall satisfaction. Composition of the 2004 index is the same as last year, comprising vehicle quality/reliability (41%), vehicle appeal (26%), ownership costs (18%) and service satisfaction (16%).

"Achieving high customer satisfaction is a top priority for us and we are firmly committed to enhancing the customer experience," says Honda (UK)’s Customer Analyst, Olivia Dunn. "To this end, the J.D. Power Study is an important measuring tool, enabling us quickly to identify the things that really matter to the customer. We are greatly encouraged by our success, especially since this year’s Study reflects steps we have recently taken to reduce ownership costs. That said, we’re determined to recover Honda’s rightful place right at the top of the Study – so we’ll be looking at actions needed to be taken to achieve this," she added.