Volvo tops S.Koreans’ favorite foreign car survey list for service

Sweden's Volvo offers the best after-sales service among imported automobile dealers in South Korea, while locals drivers are disappointed by the customer care of Tesla Inc., the world’s top electric vehicle maker, a survey showed on Sunday.

Volvo scored 75.74 points out of 100 in the Korea Economic Daily Imported Car Service Index’s (KICSI) overall rating for the first half of 2023, topping the list of the favorite foreign car brands in after-sales service for the first time since the index was introduced in 2015. The maker of the XC60 sport utility vehicle won higher scores than other brands in consumer satisfaction for its accurate pinpointing of problems, quick repair services and facilities.

“We focused more on consumer satisfaction than sales figures,” said an official at Volvo Car Korea Co., which increased its number of staff and facilities for repairs in the first six months of the year.

Lexus, which was the No. 1 in the previous survey, lost the throne to the Swedish carmaker due to more customer complaints. The premium brand of Japanese carmaker Toyota Corp. ranked second thanks to the fastest repair service -- 7.7 days on average -- among imported automakers. Toyota followed with its fulfillment of promises and speedy service.

The index was jointly developed by The Korean Economic Daily, the automobile service research institute of Kookmin University in Seoul, the Korea Consumer Agency, the Korea Insurance Development Institute and research firm Macromill Embrain Co. in June 2015.

The KICSI surveys 1,100 imported car drivers regarding their level of satisfaction with after-sales services provided by carmakers every six months. The index also evaluates insurance premiums, time for repairs, the number of reported complaints and the level of service infrastructure.

DISSATISFACTION WITH TESLA

Tesla scored 64.9 points on the index’s qualitative indicator, ranking 13th in the rating, as the quality of after-sales service missed the average among imported car brands in South Korea as their took longer for repairs than other automakers.

The US EV maker failed to satisfy customers with service facilities, accurate pinpointing of problems, fulfillment of promises, quick repair turnaround times, staff expertise, customized services, insurance premiums and repair costs, according to the survey.

It took 10.5 days on average to repair Tesla EVs in the first half. Only Chrysler of Dutch-domiciled multinational automaker Stellantis N.V. and Porsche spent more time fixing customers’ cars.

South Korean drivers are showing increasing dissatisfaction with Tesla’s after-sales services with its score down from 72.7 points in the second half of 2021 and 71.1 points in the second half of 2022.

MERCEDES BENZ, PORSCHE OFFER LESS SATISFACTION

German luxury carmakers Mercedes-Benz and Porsche slipped in the overall rating as they have yet to meet South Korean customers’ expectations of after-sales service despite their rising sales in the Asian country.

Mercedes-Benz, the No. 3 car seller in the country last year, ranked seventh in the latest KICSI overall ranking, down from fifth in the prior poll on higher insurance premiums and repair costs.

Porsche, which had topped the survey's list for the fourth straight time in the first half of 2022, skidded to the No. 5 spot in the latest list from No. 3 in the prior survey. Customers spent 15.1 days waiting for their Porsche cars to be repaired in the January-June period, about 44% more than the 10.5-day average for imported vehicles overall.

Audi also slipped to No. 13 from its previous No. 12 spot.

On the other hand, BMW jumped to No. 9 from No. 13, while Jaguar and Volkswagen soared to sixth and tenth places, respectively, from 11th and 15th.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin, Il-Gue Kim and Sungsu Bae at binthere@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.