| -

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Though customers aren't as satisfied with auto brands as they were a year ago, domestics proved to be a bright spot in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index released Tuesday.

In fact, it was the first time that Big 3 brands have grabbed the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the ASCI, as Lincoln-Mercury placed first and Buick came in second.

Ironically, Mercury is getting the axe later this year as Ford plans terminate the brand. 

However, these rankings come as good news for respective parents' Ford and General Motors, whose ratings are "holding steady," according to the ACSI.

Looking at the auto industry overall, on a scale from zero to 100, the latest rating was at 82, down 2.4 percent from the record of 84 set in 2009.

ACSI said that 14 of the 19 biggest brands — including domestics and imports — were off from a year ago, but the Big 3's decline was less steep, overall. Japanese and Korean brands, on the other hand, showed the heaviest declines in customer satisfaction.

U.S. brands now lead their Japanese and Korean rivals, albeit by a slim margin. The last time this happened was 2000.

Granted, European brands still lead the pack.

"It was not long ago when Detroit's products were clustered at the bottom of the industry. Although very few automakers improved this year, the domestic ones are either steady or have lost less in customer satisfaction compared to international competition," stated Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI. Fornell authored The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference.

"In this sense, the near future looks good for Ford and General Motors," Fornell added. "Satisfied customers tend to do more repeat business, generate good word-of-mouth and don't require greater price incentives to come back."

The same shining sentiment can't be said for the overall economic outlook in the U.S., officials said. The national ACSI across all industries came in at 75.9 for the second quarter, which marked the same level it was in the first quarter but down from 76.1 in the year-ago period.

"Although the near future looks promising for General Motors and Ford, at least in a competitive sense, the near term for the economy does not look bright," Fornell pointed out. "Labor markets show no sign of improvement, financial markets are edgy and consumers are cautious at a time when more household spending would be desirable.

"Even though ACSI is at a high level, the trend is not upward. Increasing customer satisfaction, rising disposable income and greater consumer confidence would probably be necessary to bring about more spending," Fornell added.

Looking at ACSI's rankings of auto brands in more detail, top-ranked Lincoln-Mercury was at 89, a record for the brand. Buick's score was 88. Tied for third were Cadillac, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, each of which scored an 86.

Placing last on the list was Jeep (77) as parent company Chrysler struggled in the rankings. However, with Chrysler's introduction of the new 2011 Jeep Cherokee, the automaker is likely looking to turn the tide.

Meanwhile, Dodge was next to last with a score of 78 and Chrysler was tied with three others at 80. Part of this scoring is also likely due to stale inventory as Chrysler kept new-product introductions to a bare minimum during and for the months following its bankruptcy. All this is likely to change soon, though, as the automaker plans to introduce new models specifics to its dealer body at a special September meeting.

Continuing on, officials noted that during the global recession of last year, discounts and the CARS program pushed customer satisfaction for some brands to record levels. There were fewer customers and the ones who did buy "saw an increase in value for money."

This doesn't appear to have lasted, they added.

A slew of auto brands — including Cadillac, Chevrolet, Honda, Hyundai, Lexus and Volkswagen, along with Chrysler and Dodge — hit all-time high ACSI ratings in 2009 but fell this year.

Nissan had the highest gain of any of the climbers, as its ACSI was up 5.1 percent.

Moving along, ACSI noted that consumer satisfaction for the Lexus division was hit harder from the parent company's recalls than was the Toyota division.

Granted, the Toyota division dealt with more "visible" recalls, with the number of impacted units reaching the "millions." However, the percentage of Lexus owners who had to deal with recalls was higher than their Toyota counterparts.

Lexus' issues were found "across nearly the entire Lexus lineup," and were quite varied.  

Specifically, satisfaction with Lexus was 85, down 4.5 percent year-over-year. Toyota's satisfaction dipped to 84, a 2.3-percent drop.