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Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla

Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only American brand to crack the upper echelon, Cadillac. Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan rounded out the first ten positions. The news for domestic automakers isn't good. Aside from Caddy, the only other star-spangled automaker to score above the industry average is Chrysler. The rest of FCA, most of GM, and all of Ford fell below the line. But Pied Piper's mystery shoppers handed Tesla the biggest walloping – the company is ten full points below the next lowest brand, Volvo, and its score of 86 is 17 below the average of 103. It's baffling, considering the company's touted direct-sales model. "Tesla leaves me scratching my head," Fred O'Hagan, Pied Piper's president and CEO, told Wards Auto. "They own all of their stores, so you would think each one would be doing the same thing. But they're not. Tesla is consistent in its inconsistencies." O'Hagan added that there's a "huge variation" in Tesla's store-to-store effectiveness, and that in some cases, shoppers found showroom workers that acted more like "museum curators," Wards Auto reports. It might be popular to call Tesla the Apple of the car world, but based on Pied Piper's work, the brand has a long way to go to emulate the uniform shopping experience of an Apple Store. The news might be bad for Tesla, but even for the brands that scored below average, there's cause for celebration. Only Tesla and Mini lost points in this year's rankings, and only Mercedes and Lincoln held steady. Every other brand, including Infiniti, which topped the index for the first time, gained at least one point. The biggest improvements belong to Porsche, Land Rover, and Mitsubishi, which all jumped five points. Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index uses mystery shoppers – over 6,100 this year – from across the country to assess dealers and generate rankings from over 50 individual factors. News Source: Pied Piper via WardsAuto Green Audi BMW Cadillac Chrysler Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers study

Super Bowl LVII car commercial roundup: Watch them all here

Fewer automakers than usual spent money advertising during Super Bowl LVII. In total, there were only five traditional ad spots from three big OEMs. A number of car-adjacent ads aired during the Big Game, too, and we’ll bring you those ads in this roundup alongside the more obvious ones. WeÂ’ve compiled all of the automotive-related commercials for you here in this post so you donÂ’t have to go searching for them elsewhere. Read on below to see what aired as the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles. Ram's Super Bowl spot offers a cure for 'Premature Electrification' This commercial revealed the new electric Ram Rev pickup, and itÂ’s themed like a prescription ad for an antidote to "Premature Electrification.” A concerned narrator in the Ram spot asks if you're afraid that going electric too soon will mean "you might not be able to last as long as you like," and there's a guy on a pier who's going to need some new equipment if he wants to catch fish. We're also told there are "options being designed to extend range in satisfying ways," so if this truck isn't right for you, you have choices. All the commercial's missing is a silly medical marketing name and six seconds of speed-reading gibberish about side effects like intestinal bleeding and death. Which are two more good things. Jeep 4xe Super Bowl commercial highlights modern version of 'Electric Boogie' JeepÂ’s “Electric Boogie” commercial follows the Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe in a variety of simulated off-road situations. Though fun, the soundtrack is the real star of the show. The songÂ’s original artist, Marcia Griffiths, was joined by Grammy winner Shaggy, Jamila Falak, Amber Lee, and Moyann on the track. The modernized re-recording celebrates 40 years since GriffithsÂ’ original track, and Jeep says the track is available for streaming now. Kia returns to the Super Bowl with the tale of 'Binky Dad' This year, Kia follows the adventure of "Binky Dad" in his quest to fetch his daughter's lost pacifier, which naturally takes him over just about every bit of terrain you might encounter upon leaving the civilized confines of Southern California for the not-so-civilized mountains of ... probably also California. It features the refreshed 2023 Kia Telluride, which probably doesnÂ’t need much advertising to see these days, but Kia went for it with the strong three-row SUV anyway.

Texas sues GM, saying it tricked customers into sharing driving data sold to insurers

Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday against GM over years of alleged abuse of customers' data and trust. New car owners were presented with a "confusing and highly misleading" process that was implied to be for their safety, but "was no more than a deceptively designed sales flow" that surrendered their data for GM to sell. The suit contends that at no point was selling driving data ever even suggested as a possibility, putting GM in violation of the state's consumer protection laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking a jury trial and at least $10,000 per offense (every GM car sold in the state since 2015) and a hefty add-on of $250,000 in cases where the victim was over 65. Texas seems to be flying high after a recent $1.4 billion settlement from Meta over other privacy concerns. This may well be a way to solve any pending budgetary issues in the Lone Star State.