RAY MASSEY: Lexus in poll position for customer satisfaction

Car sales may have plummeted to near-record lows due to the coronavirus lockdown, but production lines are slowly starting up again this month, including at Britain’s Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin.

Manufacturers and dealers are also boosting capacity for online sales and contactless deliveries, while preparing for an expected limited reopening of showrooms.

Consumers will have had lots of time to mull over their prospective purchases. So, plenty to think about then, after Lexus took top honours in the latest Auto Express Driver Power poll, with a customer satisfaction score of 90.85 per cent.

This is good timing for the launch of its new LC Convertible at the end of the year. Priced from about £85,000, it has a fabric roof that opens in 15 seconds at up to 31 mph and a mighty 5-litre V8 engine. A more frugal 3.5-litre V6 will follow.

Lexus slightly shaded Kia, on 90.84 per cent, in a table dominated by Asian brands. Japan’s Subaru (90.6 per cent) is in third place, followed by Mazda (90.51 per cent), Skoda (90.26 per cent), Toyota (90.09 per cent) and Honda (89.95 per cent).

Worst performers were budget brand Dacia (85.78 per cent) and Vauxhall (87.58 per cent), followed surprisingly by premium brands Mercedes-Benz (87.97 per cent) and BMW (88.04 per cent). 

For individual vehicles, the Kia Sorento SUV (2014-20) was named best new car in the owners’ poll. It scored a 92.05 per cent satisfaction rate, pipping Peugeot 3008 into second (92.04 per cent).

For more details, see Auto Express’ Driver Power.

Tesla is top lockdown seller

Tesla’s all-electric Model 3, pictured, was the UK’s top-selling new car last month, despite general sales in April plunging by 97 per cent to their lowest level since 1946.

With just 658 registrations, Elon Musk’s Tesla accounted for one in seven sales and pipped the electric Jaguar I-Pace (367 sales), Vauxhall Corsa (264) and Vauxhall Crossland X (143). Only 4,321 passenger cars were registered, some 156,743 fewer than in April last year.

The biggest-selling vehicle overall was the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (814).

• Jaguar Land Rover has boosted its online ‘showroom’ following a year-long trial. It found that a higher proportion of women look online rather than in a real showroom.

Tribute to Sir Stirling

Sir Stirling Moss, 90, reached his final chequered flag last month, but what a life. 

I was privileged to know him and his wife Susie for a quarter of a century.

I was also party to his almost premature demise 20 years ago. 

He was driving and I was in the passenger seat of an open-topped Mercedes-Benz SL cabriolet which he’d kindly consented to test drive with me. 

It was to mark his winning the 1955 Mille Miglia 1,000-mile race across Northern Italy at an average speed of 98 mph in a Merc 300 SLR.

On a dual carriageway, a twisted lump of metal hit our bonnet at speed. Miraculously, it bounced over the windscreen and both our heads. 

Without batting an eyelid, Stirling broke the silence: ‘I thought we’d had it then, old bean. Could have been a great story for you, mind.’

• For more of his exploits, try Stirling Moss, The Definitive Biography Vol. 1 by Philip Porter

(£30, porterpress.co.uk).