In todays Automotive news, the above article, Embarrassed Nissan lifts Sagging Satisfaction Ranking is almost laughable. The article written from interviews with Nissans Billy Hayes and Nissan dealer Mike D'Amato 2012 dealer council chairman is almost laughable. Changing light bulbs, modern facility's, and 10 thousand small improvements that Nissan has created, that Hayes says got Nissan from dead bottom to 7th from the bottom is a success is a joke. First Nissan has intimadated or forced most of its dealers over the past 5-10 years to upgrade there facility's so the light bulbs, shrubs, showrooms etc can't be used a reason for the improvement. No the real reason is the further harrasment and threats by Nissan to get off rock bottom. And any dealer who is threatened with losing there franchise will make whatever changes or giveaways to the customers they have to get a little bump in ther scores at even further expense. Many dealers that were forced to upgrade there facility have not made anymore money and as can be seen in the scores, no improved scores. Including, which I think is laughable, the forced green mountain coffee K cups. All the above at the expense of the dealer. As far as Mr D'Amato's input is concerned national and for that matter regional dealer councils are made up by very large Nissan dealers who are selling many Nissans and making lots of money. On the regional and District level the councils or district boards are made up of the same or the, "lets not make waves dealers". So what you get at the council level is nothing more then Nissan in the clones of dealers that are doing very well or just want to be close to Nissan and go along with anything they say. I should know since Nissan rigged my district election vote in 2005,since I'm not a yes man but truly wanted to give the dealers there voice. Thats right Nissan made sure I lost not once, not twice, but 3 times. So in the end the whole dealer body will never have a voice in how to satisfy customers. Let's get back to what Nissan needs to do to get satisfaction scores up in one area. EXAMPLE: Customer comes in for repair. Repair is questionable or slightly out of warranty or something Nissan questions based on there so called unusual claims. If the customer is a good customer, it should be a no brainer. But no. The dealer has to run it through the computer to see if the computer says yes. More time lost, and if a no comes back, the dealer is asked by the factory to participate in the repair if they want Nissan to help. Example: dealer you pay half and we will pay half. Otherwise we arent going to help. Now the dealer is put in a bad spot. The customer requests Nissan 800 number and raises hell. Nissan either tells the customer the dealer wont assist or Nissans folds and NISSAN takes the credit and the dealer is left as the bad guy. Boy wouldnt it be TEAM LIKE if Nissan rethinks the repair, says we'll cover it, call the dealer and the DEALER is now the good guy. But that will never happen with Nissan. Enough with the fixed end. Lets finish with the fact that the gross profit is so small with Nissans new cars and trucks that they will never have any longivity in the sales staff. And with high turnover you will never obtain the customer satisfaction you want. Most salepeople with a 50-100 mini will say I'm done. I worked for 4-5hours or 2-3 weeks and thats all I got for 50.00. Im done with that customer. So Mr. Hayes dont pat yourself on the back for 7th from the bottom for improvements with K cups of coffee and light bulbs and nice buildings. Its all about working with your dealers letting them make calls on taking care of the customer with NISSAN's money and paying the salespeople a fair wage through fair mark-up's. And if you asked your dealer body in a way that they wouldnt be marked for speaking up you'd get the REAL story.