For the fifth time in six years, luxury brand Jaguar has taken top honors in the J.D. Power and Associates Sales Satisfaction Index, released on Tuesday, December 8, 2009.

Customers responding to the survey answer questions relative to their buying experience. Ford sold Jaguar to Tata Motors of India in 2008 along with Land Rover in a deal valued at $2.8 billion.

Jaguar sales personnel and the brand's finance and paperwork process scored well, just edging out second-place Mercury, the Ford brand taking top place in sales satisfaction for mass-market brands. The category is new to the survey and was created to make more equitable comparisons among brands.

Thirteen luxury brands achieved higher scores than their 24 mass-market counterparts, but the ranges over-lapped in a number of areas. Five of the survey's top ten brands for the year are non-luxury offerings.

Jon Osborn, research director for J.D. Power said the attentiveness of dealership personnel during the buying process at luxury outlets was most often a distinguishing factor in score results, but as mass-market brands have aggressively sought customers during the recession, their numbers on the survey have gone up. "Scores [for dealership employees] improved on complete explanations during delivery and concerned you stayed within budget," he said.

At the same time, however, respondents identified more pressure to buy, with one in four complaining about that aspect of the buying experience. "It's a strange dynamic," Osborn said. "Dealers want to work with the customer, but they really don't want them to leave."