Customers are happier with the new car buying process, says the latest study from J.D. Power. The 2024 Sales Satisfaction Index shows customers are having better feelings about their car dealers. The main reason makes it not much of a surprise, as the study found the number of customers paying more than sticker price for their new ride has cut in half compared with a year ago.

Electric buyers, though, still aren’t happy with their dealers. That applies to both mass-market and premium EV buyers, who say that their dealers don’t know enough about their EVs. But even dealer-free direct seller Tesla isn’t immune to that complaint.

Fewer Buyers Paying Over MSRP Means More Happy Customers

This year, eight percent of buyers reported that they paid more than sticker price for their new car or truck. That’s a massive drop from the 15 percent who reported paying more than MSRP in 2023, and far lower than the 25 percent who reported paying dealer markups in 2022. For premium buyers, the number reporting markups dropped from 10 to six percent in 2024.

An increase in new vehicle inventories is responsible for that drop in markups, as the pandemic-era new car shortages have all but disappeared. During those times, dealer markups, the amount a dealer is asking over MSRP, went up 140 percent. That saw buyers paying $10,000 or more in markups for some popular but hard-to-get mainstream vehicles.

“In 2023, improvements in new-vehicle inventory and pricing moved customer satisfaction in an upward trajectory from the lows of 2022, and that’s apparent again this year. It marks a return to form. As shoppers see a wider variety of vehicles to choose from, pricing becomes more competitive across the market. But this year’s study shows satisfaction with other parts of the sales experience has not improved nearly as much.”

– Stewart Stropp, Vice President of Automotive Retail, J.D. Power.

Porsche, Infiniti Top Premium Brands, Mini And Buick For Mainstream

J.D. Power measures 10 key performance indexes to measure dealer satisfaction, and it says its survey showed the importance of hitting them. 57 percent of buyers said their dealer hit nine or ten of the top ten, and they showed a satisfaction score 90 points higher than customers of stores who hit eight or fewer. These markers include effective use of technology by dealers, understanding customer needs, and vehicle condition on delivery.

The buyer satisfaction score for EV buyers was 822 versus 857 for internal combustion customers. EV buyers reported that they weren’t happy with dealer knowledge about EVs. J.D. Power said that Tesla buyers, in particular, had “markedly lower satisfaction” with their vehicle feature walkthroughs at the retail stores, showing that bringing sales in-house isn’t necessarily a fix.

Porsche had the highest satisfaction score for premium makes for the second year in a row with an 851. Infiniti was second and Jaguar placed third with its Land Rover brand in fifth. Brands scoring below average included Audi, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Alfa Romeo, and Genesis. The score for Genesis was 781, 29 points below next-last Alfa and 37 points below average. Among mainstream brands, Mini scored highest with 829, followed by Buick, Subaru, and Nissan. Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Toyota scored lowest, at 768, 776, and 777, respectively, all below the segment average of 798.