David Kiley
August 14, 2003

DETROIT -- When it comes to creating customer happiness with the car-buying
experience, Cadillac is tops, according to a J.D. Power and Associates
survey.

Brands owned by Cadillac's parent, General Motors, took six of the top 10
spots in the ranking, based on a survey of more than 40,000 buyers of 2002
and 2003 vehicles.

The survey asks customers about the quality of the facility, salesperson,
financing, pricing and delivery.

"Our dealers have been great even when they didn't have all the products
they needed," says Cadillac general manager Mark LaNeve. "Now that we are
coming on with a full range of products, we are kicking on all cylinders."

GM's Saturn brand had topped the rankings the last three years but dropped
to fifth place, although it had nearly the same score as last year.

In fact, the industry average was up from a year ago.

That may be in part because low interest rates and longer-term loans mean
low monthly payments that make people happier. The survey shows the average
loan term is 58 months, three months longer than last year, and the average
loan rate is 4.8% vs. 5.5% last year. One in 10 customers in the survey got
a 0% loan. The average monthly payment was $ 427.

The Asian non-luxury brands continued to rank below average, as they have
since the survey began 16 years ago. Chris Denove of J.D. Power says that's
in part because their dealerships tend to be located in metropolitan areas
where there is heavy price competition, rapid turnover of sales staff and
more aggressive selling tactics.

U.S. carmakers have more suburban and rural stores where dealers tend to
have longer relationships with their customers.

Asian brands also don't offer as many and as deep sales incentives as U.S.
automakers do -- and deals make people happy, Denove says.

"Overall, Honda and Nissan have been making progress, but Toyota has been
losing ground and should be concerned," he says. Toyota ranked fourth from
the bottom.

"We like our product quality scores better than this one," says Toyota
spokeswoman Nancy Hubbell. "We lose points because we offer incentives less
generous than competitors' and because many of our dealers' facilities
haven't kept up with our growth."

Toyota sales have risen 27% over five years, but the automaker has added
only about five dealers.

A year ago, Honda placed 11 executives around the country to improve
customer handling at dealerships. This year, its score climbed, and the
automaker was just a point shy of the industry average.

Denove says consumers should remember the rankings are averages. "Some
Suzuki dealers, which ranked lowest overall, will be better than some
Cadillac dealers."

Auto manufacturers collect data that show them which of their dealers are
scoring the best and worst with customers, but neither they, nor J.D.
Power, make it available to consumers.

General Motors customers drove away the happiest from car dealerships.
According to a JD Powers and Associates car buying satisfaction survey, GM
took 6 of the top 10 spots.
August 14, 2003
Carol Costello, Carrie Lee

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little business buzz right now. Are
you in the market for a car, then you may want to know which car buyers
have the best experience.

Carrie Lee live in New York at the Nasdaq site with more on that.

Good morning -- Carrie.

CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

General Motors, one of the big three automakers, those customers drove away
the happiest from car dealerships. Now this is according to a JD Powers and
Associates survey. They looked at buyers from 2002 as well as 2003 and
found that the world's largest carmaker took the top -- took 6 of the top
10 spots in a car buying satisfaction survey.

Now JD Powers asked customers how satisfied they were with the dealership's
facility, with sales people, financing, pricing and delivery. Of the GM
makes and models, Cadillac came in first, followed by Porsche, Lincoln and
Mercury. Now Saturn, which actually ranked No. 1 for the past three years,
actually fell to No. 5. Suzuki buyers had the least satisfying shopping
experience.

And JD Powers does say, though, that the overall average did increase. That
could very well be because of the cost to borrow money has been lowered.
Lower interest rates mean lower monthly payments. And obviously, Carol,
when you have to pay less for a car that's going to put a smile on pretty
much everyone's face, right?

COSTELLO: Yes, you have got that right. Carrie Lee, you'll join us in the
next half hour. Thanks so much.