Consumers are less satisfied with major manufactured goods this year than they were in 2000, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) produced by the University of Michigan Business School. Customer satisfaction with durable goods dropped by 0.9% between last year's second quarter and the same three months this year, falling to a score of 78.7 on a 100-point scale. That's down from 79.4 in the second quarter of 2000.
The national ACSI score, which represents 38 industries in nine sectors of the economy, dropped by only 0.1% between the first and second quarters this year to 72.1, but is down by 1% from the last year's second quarter.