NISSAN dealers have been praised for their “brilliant customer service” as the carmaker scooped a host of honours in the inaugural carwow New Car Buying Awards.
Nissan picked up Manufacturer of the Year for its exemplary customer satisfaction for carwow users over the 12 months from September 1st 2014.
The Nissan Qashqai – the nation’s most popular crossover – was crowned Car of the Year and also picked up Mid-size Car of the Year.
The New Car Buying Awards are the only motoring awards to use real-time data on actual car-buying transactions to establish customer satisfaction. They take in to account how quickly dealers answer calls, how fast they respond to enquiries and real customer reviews.
All of this data is converted in to a CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index), with a maximum score of 10, and Nissan’s 8.7 rating was the highest on the site, securing it Manufacturer of the Year 2015.
This CSI data also makes up one-third of the New Car Buying Awards criteria for Car of the Year, alongside a car’s ‘wowscore’ – an average score awarded based on the combined opinion of the UK’s top motoring media – and sales figures through CarWow Awards 2015.
Since some manufacturers have more dealers signed up than others, the results are normalised. Each of the three judging criteria has a maximum score of 10 for a theoretical total of 30.
With its CSI score of 8.7, a normalised sales figure of 10 and a ‘wowscore’ of 8.9 the Nissan Qashqai scored a total 27.6, giving it the highest score of any car on the site and granting it the Car of the Year and Mid-size Car of the Year crowns for 2015.
James Hind, CEO of carwow, said: “Our New Car Buying Awards are unique in the industry – no one else considers not only how good a car is but also what your experience will be like when you’re buying it.
“By taking the combined opinion of the UK’s top motoring media in to consideration and the sales figures of a car though carwow we’re rewarding cars that are highly regarded by the public and press alike. Uniquely, we know that the buying experience is just as important, so those manufacturers that score well for customer satisfaction on our site are rightly rewarded.
“The Qashqai is a worthy winner of our top prize this year, performing well for all three of our different criteria. The motoring media are huge fans and, judging by the sales we’re seeing through carwow, so are the public. When customers do come to buy a Qashqai, they’re almost always getting brilliant customer service from Nissan dealers, too, giving the Qashqai experience a real premium feel from start to finish.”
