Press

As per the Pied Piper (no, not that Pied Piper) Prospect satisfaction index, Infiniti offers the best vehicle sales experience, while far at the other end of the spectrum is Tesla, rated as the worst of all manufacturers.

So how did Tesla, a brand that touts its next-generation way of selling cars, end up at the bottom of this list? Well, much of it has to do with how the study was designed, but Tesla could still learn a few things from the top luxury brands in the business.

As is typical with most studies like this, it’s important to take the results with a grain of salt: giving a numeric measurement to the “treatment of car shoppers” is an inexact science. The categories evaluated for and scored lend themselves to everything that a traditional dealership would excel at, such as: asking qualifying questions to would-be buyers, offering brochures and catalogs, and eventually asking for the sale. These all seem like pretty reasonable things for a dealership to do, because you’ve probably experienced all of them at one point or another at your local dealer.

The categories also explain why Tesla scores so jaw-droppingly low compared to most other manufacturers. Their “stores and galleries” approach to selling cars differs from actual dealerships in that they don’t necessarily push for the sale the second you walk through the door. In fact, Fran O’Hagan, Pied Piper CEO, said in an interview with WardsAuto that most Tesla staffers they encountered tended to act like “museum curators.”

Luxury brands dominated the rest of the list with Lexus and Mercedes-Benz tied for second after Infiniti. Cadillac was the first domestic brand to be named, all the way down in 10th place.