Hino ranks highest in medium-duty satisfaction

Hino Trucks ranked highest in customer satisfaction among conventional cab medium-duty truck owners in 2008, according to the J.D. Power and Associates Medium-Duty Truck Engine and Transmission Customer Satisfaction Study.

Based on responses from 1,525 primary maintainers of two-year-old conventional cab medium-duty trucks, the study measures customer perceptions of 2006 model-year Class 5, 6 and 7 gasoline and diesel engines by four factors in order of importance--engine warranty, engine quality, engine performance and cost of engine ownership. Hino ranked highest with a score of 794 (on a 1,000-point scale), followed by Mercedes-Benz at 758 and Caterpillar at 748.

“Hino Truck engines perform well across the board, particularly with regard to quality,” said Brian Etchells, senior research manager in the commercial vehicle group at J.D. Power and Associates. “Compared with owners of other brands, fewer owners of Hino Truck engines report experiencing an engine problem or engine-related downtime. In past years, Hino Truck engines have been well-regarded for their fuel economy, quality and performance in cab-over trucks, and Hino engines continue to satisfy in these areas today within the brand’s conventional model lineup.”

In addition, the study found that medium-duty truck owners that use gasoline engines are more satisfied than diesel engine owners, particularly in the areas of engine performance, engine quality and cost of engine ownership. However, gasoline engines accounted for only 5% of the medium-duty engines included in the study.

“Typically, gasoline engines are specified primarily for lower-class trucks—2C through 5—and even then, they are the minority in Class 5,” said Etchells. “Considering the jobs these classes of trucks have to perform, it’s surprising that gasoline engine owners are more satisfied than diesel engine owners. There are only two key areas in which diesel engines appear to have an edge in satisfying customers, compared with gasoline engines—the length and comprehensiveness of the engine warranty and fuel economy, where diesel engines have a higher reported average miles per gallon than gasoline engines.”