Jan. 24, 2007
BMW’s 3 Series was the top near-luxury sedan in the Strategic Vision Customer Delight survey. The X3, Mini Cooper, and Mini Cooper Convertible took first-in-class, too. Also above-average were the 7 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series convertible, and 3 Series coupe (above).
Here’s another survey where BMW kicks butt: the Strategic Vision Customer Delight survey of 2006 (just released at the start of 2007). Four of the 23 winners are BMWs or Mini, same as Honda, one less than DaimlerChrysler. BMW Group’s winners were the 3 Series sedan, X3 (yes, the X3 wins something), the Mini Cooper, and the Mini Cooper convertible. As you might guess from the name, this is a bit of a touchie-feelie survey: It measures the “emotional response to each of the attributes” in the study.
In near luxury, the above average cars were: 1 BMW 3-Series Sedan 724 points, 2 Lexus IS 300 706, 3 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Sedan 655, 4 Audi A4/S4 Sedan 648. The bottom three were: 17 Cadillac CTS 518, 18 Lexus ES 330 479, and 19 Lincoln LS 455. The Infiniti G35, considered to be closest to the 3 Series in road tests, ranks No. 14 with 535 points, while the Acura TL is No. 8 with 608. Oddly, Cadillacs score the opposite of what you’d think if the 3 Series is the benchmark: The mondo DTS (displacing as much bulk as a 7 Series and the same as the Buick Lucerne under the skin) is No. 6, the 5 Series-competitor STS is No. 10, and the true 3 Series-competitor CTS is near the bottom at No. 17. Go figure.


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