Suzuki Dominates Canstar Blue Customer New Car Award

Suzuki New Zealand has taken home the Canstar Blue Customer Satisfaction New Car Award for 2024 and received an outstanding five stars in all categories, earning more top ratings from its customers than the other ten car brands in the survey combined.

It is the fifth time that Suzuki has taken the award, having previously achieved back-to-back wins in 2014 and 2015, and 2017 and 2018.

Consumers rated their new cars across six categories comprising overall satisfaction with the car, after sales service, driving experience, point of sale service, reliability and value for money.

Bruce Pitchers, Editor for Canstar Blue said Suzuki dominated the New Car Award ratings in the 2024 survey. “The brand achieved a quite remarkable set of perfect 5-star ratings across the award categories. No other car brand earned a 5-star rating for Overall Satisfaction,” he said.

“In total, only three other car brands earned the 5-star rating at all, and then only one apiece. So Suzuki really is the stand-out performer in this year’s ratings,” said Mr Pitchers.

Gary Collins, General Manager of Automotive Marketing for Suzuki New Zealand, said, “We are clearly delighted to have won the Canstar Blue Award once again and the fact that Suzuki received the maximum of five stars in all categories is a testament to our loyal customers, our reliable vehicle range, and our dedicated team of Suzuki dealerships and service centres nationwide.”

“We are also very pleased to see that Suzuki was the only brand to score a maximum five stars in the value for money category” he said. "We have mastered making a little go a long way with our innovative and quality vehicle range, providing affordable new cars for New Zealanders all around the country.”

The car marques that Suzuki outshone in the Canstar Blue Award were Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota.

“In the past decade Suzuki has won this award more than any other new car brand in New Zealand,” Canstar Blue said. “The range is led by the ever-popular Swift, the highest selling light passenger car in New Zealand last year that comes in a range of models including a Hybrid and a Sport.”

The independent organisation also said the super-compact Ignis SUV and the cool Jimny compact four-wheel-drive were perfect for the city while those looking for a more family friendly, spacious SUV could choose between the Vitara and S-Cross ranges.

Canstar Blue is the well respected consumer research organisation that looks to help consumers make better purchasing decisions. The business works with more than 30,000 products and more than 300 brands in the financial services industry.

For those in the survey the most important features and considerations when purchasing a new car were price (21 per cent), safety features and safety rating (18 per cent), functionality (18 per cent) and fuel economy (12 per cent).

The Canstar Blue Award comes hard on the heels of Suzuki being named the number one automotive brand for the eighth time in the bi-annual Institute of Customer Service’s United Kingdom Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI). Suzuki was voted top make against 26 automotive brands.

In addition Suzuki was number one out of 30 brands in the 2023 ‘What Car?’ Reliability Survey with a score of 94.7 per cent. Owners praised Suzuki for having very few faults to report in their ownership as well as being inexpensive to repair.

The British Reliability Survey ranked the Swift and Ignis tops in the small car league. Meanwhile the Vitara ranked second most reliable car in the small SUV category with a score of 99.3 per cent, followed closely by the Swift at 98.1 per cent.

For further information please contact:

Suzuki New Zealand Automotive Marketing Team

adminmv@suzuki.co.nz