For the second year, Nissan's Infiniti brand dealerships ranked highest in the newly released 2017 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index® (PSI®) U.S. Auto Industry Benchmarking Study. The study measured treatment of car-shoppers who visited 5,289 dealerships throughout the country. Study rankings by brand were determined by the Pied Piper PSI process, which ties "mystery shopping" measurement and scoring to industry sales success. Dealerships for Toyota's Lexus brand were ranked second, and dealerships selling Mercedes-Benz were ranked third.

The top 10 brands are the following:

Brands which improved the most from year to year were Tesla, Mitsubishi, Lincoln, Ram, Subaru and Chevrolet. Brands suffering the greatest declines were Jeep, Fiat, Volkswagen and BMW. A total of 21 brands improved or remained the same from 2016 to 2017, while 12 brands declined. Nine brands have consistently ranked at or above the industry average for each of the past five years: Infiniti, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Audi, BMW and Kia. Five brands have consistently finished below the industry average for each of the past five years: Chevrolet, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Fiat.

qMindset's opinion: it is important to note that the study measures the treatment of car-shoppers, and it has no direct connection to the quality of vehicles or the service provided to car owners. However, the study is mainly sales focused, but the quality mindset should embrace and cover not only the product and service quality but also how brands treat their potential buyers, so such studies are greatly welcome in terms of quality related environment. Congratulations to Infiniti and all other top performers!