Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 12, 1995                   TAG: 9507140010
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: C-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DETROIT                                LENGTH: Short

STILL TOP 3: LEXUS, INFINITI, SATURN

The influential marketing firm said Tuesday that the car business as a whole improved its performance three points on Power's Customer Satisfaction Index, scoring 138 of a possible 202. The average for Asian makes was 143; for the first time, the European car makers matched the Asian score.

Overall, domestic automakers ranked below the industry average at 134.

``One thing to keep in mind is that they are the most improved of the three over the 10 years we've been doing this index,'' Bill Wallis, a Power senior account executive and author of the study, said of domestic automakers. ``Since 1986, they improved 43 percent, whereas the Europeans improved 35 percent and the Asians 20 percent.''

The index score for Lexus, Toyota's luxury line, was 173. Infiniti had 172 and Saturn 159.

Power surveyed 32,000 car and light truck owners who registered new vehicles in February, March and April of 1994.

- Associated Press