Grant's Auto Rants

Customer service with a side of 5 Series.

Every so often you come across a product that is a real game-changer. These are the items that are executed so well that competitors can actually thrive just by emulating them and offering an inferior copy.

It seems that just about every industry has one. It may not be the most popular, and certainly won’t always be the cheapest, but they set the standard or benchmark that everyone else focuses their Monday morning strategy meetings around.

In the grocery business you have Wegmen’s.

In the wood-burning stove business you have Vermont Castings.

In the computer business you have Apple.

In the pen business you have Waterman.

In the boat shoe business you have A.S. Rigger.

In the mixer business you have KitchenAid.

All of these brand names conjure images of specific products, but it isn’t the products themselves that make these brands stand out. Senior management at each one of these companies will collectively claim that they are primarily in the business of customer satisfaction and just happen to sell

Hinckley

yachts, Hunter Douglas blinds or Scots Turf Builder grass seed.

Of course, these brands all face stiff competition in their respective categories, and one can always argue in favor of a competitor, but customer service also happens to be what consumers are buying, even if they show up in the market for a thermos. Revenue in this model is invariably a secondary consideration.

When you consider the auto industry specifically, you have a unique juxtaposition of factors that make it very difficult to clearly differentiate your brand. The combination of high volumes with the fact that the product is a complicated, large ticket item makes the question even more subjective. A as matter of fact, the auto industry is one case where even the very criteria for greatness can be easily questioned.

If you had to single out one brand that executes the best, for the most, which would it be?

Sure, let’s look at Lexus for a moment, as they are highly regarded as one of the most desirable, best built vehicles with some of the best customer service in the business. Does this make them the best? Well, it is obviously relative. If the criteria are strictly mass volume, reliability, and painless service, then maybe they are. But for many people a more performance-minded execution may be more important in which case BMW may be the clear winner.

Drill down into different price points, and the game changes all over again. Is it

Toyota

or is it Honda?, etc…and so the story goes in the auto business. The industry has been über segmented into dozens of niche (not “nitch”) categories with everyone scrambling for some arbitrary award that labels them the “best” at something. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as consumers have plenty of choices (too many?), but it seems to represent a model where more (sales) are better than fewer, which definitely is driven by revenue and for the most part at odds with customer service.

Year end clearance...

Well, the holiday season is officially upon us. This is the time of year when people are thinking about travel plans, trendy gifts and dropping temperatures. One thing noticeably off that list is the purchase of a new (or used) vehicle, even with all of the fanfare for end of year and holiday sales events. There is just too much else going on to think about dealing with the typical automotive purchase, which inevitably brings to close a year that a sports team might consider a “rebuilding” one. That’s just the way it is.

A quick scan of daily industry news turns up several items that really shouldn’t shock anyone and serve as a fairly appropriate snapshot of the entire year. Ford is recalling 1.2 million vehicles, and trucks no less, a diesel from VW is running circles around the Prius and the House of Representatives has approved an energy bill destined not for the president’s desk, but rather the oval bin underneath it.

So what’s new?

Rather than just dwell on the low sales volumes or other negatives, we should be looking at the bright spots in the industry, no matter how difficult they may seem to find. After all, this was a pretty incredible year one way or another. Each of the domestics had their own victories in a successful divorce (Chrysler), and major about face (Ford, which lost $12.6 billion in 2006 and has earned +$90 million so far this year) and GM, that has been receiving pretty good reviews on new vehicles. Never mind that pesky $39 billion dollar 3rd quarter tax charge, the company has signed a new labor agreement as well, which really could pave the way to a brighter future.

Across the pond, Porsche has clubbed its date (VW/Audi) over the head and is dragging her back to the cave, while BMW has raised the bar once again with the industry best new 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz is quickly climbing back up the reliability ratings. Similar things can be said with most of the other brands, meaning pretty much wherever you look, there is a silver lining.

And even though we have seen enormous change, some things just tend to stay the same.

MotorTrend car of the Year: Toyota Camry

Bring on 2008!