Auto sales are booming. And yet, many buyers are less than pleased with their new vehicles, according to a national customer satisfaction survey published Tuesday. 
 
 Of the 27 auto brands tracked by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Automobile Report, 15 lost customer satisfaction from a year ago. Only two — Acura (up 8 percent) and BMW (up 3 percent) — gained any ground, with the remaining dozen unchanged. 
 
 Overall owner satisfaction — 79 out of 100 points — was down 3.7 percent from last year. It was the third straight yearly decline, and the lowest score since 2004. 
 
 One reason for the lower numbers is a record number of recalls — nearly 64 million last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 
 
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 “While it is true that all cars are now much better than they were 10 to 20 years ago, it is alarming that so many of them have quality problems,” said Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder in a statement. 
 
 Jack Gillis, author of “The Car Book 2015,” isn’t surprised that owners are frustrated by the recalls, many of them to fix life-threatening defects. 
 
 “While recall notices are a good thing, because they identify problems and offer solutions, the backlog in parts needed to fix the recalls is likely causing angst among the owners waiting to get their cars fixed,” he said. 
 
 And then there’s the price 
 
 The ACSI survey shows that sticker shock is another factor driving down buyer satisfaction. 
 
 The average cost of a new vehicle in the U.S. is now $33,453, according to the latest estimate from Kelly Blue Book. 
 
 You’re getting a lot more in terms of fuel economy, safety and technology,” noted Mike Quincy, senior editor at Consumer Reports Autos. “But it’s a tough pill to swallow when you go to the dealer for the first time in eight or ten years and realize how much new cars cost.” 
 
 And as prices have gone up, so have customer expectations. 
 
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 “We’ve come to expect close to perfection now,” said ACSI director David VanAmburg. “We really become unhappy when we find any defect or are told we have to take our car in to have some kind of recall taken care of, even if it doesn’t cost us anything.” 
 
 Something else to consider: Customer satisfaction scores may have been artificially inflated from 2008 to 2012, the ACSI report noted. During the recession, various incentives were offered, including the Cash for Clunkers program, to stimulate car sales. 
 
 “Now that the economy is recovering, automakers don’t have to give us so much love on the price as they were doing in past years, and so we’re a little less happy as we reflect back on that past purchase,” VanAmburg said. 
 
 Winners and losers 
 
 When it comes to customer satisfaction, Asian and European manufacturers still beat U.S. automakers. In fact, 77 percent of the vehicles with above-average ratings are imports. 
 
 “The Japanese, Koreans and Europeans continue to make cars that customers perceive to be of significantly higher quality than the U.S. brands,” VanAmburg told NBC News. 
 
 The domestic car industry hit a five-year low in the new ACSI survey, pulled down by Fiat Chrysler brands. 
 
 Luxury vehicles typically have a higher level of satisfaction. We pay a lot more and we expect a higher level of quality and we typically get it. So it’s no surprise that luxury brands dominated the ratings. 
 
 Lexus took the top spot from Mercedes-Benz this year. With a score of 84, Lexus was unchanged from 2014, but Mercedes dropped three percent to 83, putting it in a tie for second with Acura and Lincoln. 
 
 BMW, Subaru and Toyota were just a point behind at 82. Hyundai (81) Buick, Cadillac, Honda, Mazda and Volkswagen (tied at 80) also scored above average. 
 
 Three Fiat Chrysler nameplates anchored the bottom of the list: Jeep (75), Chrysler (74) and Fiat (73). 
 
 The ACSI report is based on 4,294 customer surveys collected in the second quarter of 2015. Owners were asked to evaluate their recent vehicle purchase and experiences. You can read the full report and get complete ratings on the ACSI website. 
 
 Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website. ||||| Among America's car buyers, one brand in particular is on the outs. 
 
 That honor belongs to Fiat, the car brand owned by Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, an independent national benchmark of consumer experiences of products and services sold to U.S. consumers. 
 
 Fiat Chrysler, formed by the merger of the Italian car maker Fiat and the American automaker Chrysler, has several brands that win little respect from consumers, including Jeep and Dodge, the survey found. Overall, Americans are less in love with their cars than they were a year ago, with declines in satisfaction most likely tied to a record number of recalls and rising prices. 
 
 "More defects point to quality issues, and customers perceive the quality isn't up to the standards that they had seen in past years," David VanAmburg, ACSI's director, said. 
 
 The auto industry recalled nearly 64 million vehicles last year because of safety issues, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said earlier this year. Among the largest recalls were those from General Motors, which recalled about 27 million vehicles, followed by Honda (8.9 million vehicle recalls) and Fiat Chrysler (at 8.8 million recalls). 
 
 "While we haven't seen the results of this year's ACSI survey, Fiat has done very well recently in similar studies that measure customer satisfaction and vehicle quality," Fiat Chrysler said in a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch. "Several FIAT models just earned top honors in the 2015 J.D. Power U.S. APEAL Study and Strategic Vision's 20th Annual Total Quality Index." 
 
 Across the board, consumers rated their satisfaction with their cars at 79 points out of 100, or a decline of 3 percentage points from a year earlier. Among the brand names that saw declining consumer satisfaction were Honda, GM's Chevrolet, and Fiat Chrysler's Jeep. 
 
 Why are consumers feeling pressure on car prices? VanAmburg points out that automakers heavily discounted vehicles or offered incentives in the recession and recovery years, as a way to get consumers through the showroom doors. 
 
 "We're seeing a return to normalcy," he notes. "The economy has improved somewhat. Automakers don't have to show quite as much love on the price side." 
 
 Interestingly, the cars that held up best among consumers' perceptions are the luxury brands, with Toyota's Lexus holding steady at 84 points and Honda's Acura rising to 83 points from 77 a year earlier, making those brands the first and second most-liked high-end cars with consumers. 
 
 Fiat vehicles haven't scored very well with reviewers, either. The U.K.'s Car magazine said the Fiat 500 provides "little" for enthusiasts, adding that the "ride is nothing special." The rear row is best designed for toddlers, with even school age children likely to feel cramped, the reviewer added. 
 
 The ACSI asks consumers about their experiences with cars that they bought about six months to three years prior to the survey, which means many of those car owners may be expressing the joys -- and dings -- of owning particular brands. Because of that, consumers who are considering buying a new car may want to add the survey's longer-term trends into their decision-making, VanAmburg said. 
 
 "Look at the trends over time," VanAmburg said. "This is a phenomenon with Chrysler that goes back since we've been doing this really, showing that they've hovered near the bottom. That means something." 
 
 Below is a list of the ACSI's 2015 ratings for car brands, ranked from top to bottom, with their parent company and customer-service scores. 
 
 1. Lexus (Toyota) -- 84 
 
 2. Acura (Honda) -- 83 
 
 3. Lincoln (Ford) -- 83 
 
 4. Mercedes-Benz -- 83 
 
 5. BMW -- 82 
 
 6. Subaru -- 82 
 
 7. Toyota -- 82 
 
 8. Hyundai -- 81 
 
 9. Buick (GM) -- 80 
 
 10. Cadillac (GM) -- 80 
 
 11. Honda -- 80 
 
 12. Mazda -- 80 
 
 13. Volkswagen -- 80 
 
 14. Chevrolet (GM) -- 79 
 
 15. Ford -- 79 
 
 16. Volvo -- 79 
 
 17. Audi (Volkswagen) -- 78 
 
 18. GMC (GM) -- 78 
 
 19. KIA -- 78 
 
 20. Infiniti (Nissan) -- 77 
 
 21. Dodge (Fiat Chrysler) -- 76 
 
 22. MINI (BMW) -- 76 
 
 23. All other brands -- 75 
 
 24. Jeep (Fiat Chrysler) -- 75 
 
 25. Chrysler (Fiat Chrysler) -- 74 
 
 26. Fiat (Fiat Chrysler) -- 73
– Americans' level of satisfaction with their new cars is at its lowest point in more than a decade, and experts are blaming a record number of recalls and rising prices. The results of a national survey of more than 4,000 car buyers released today show an overall satisfaction level of 79 out of 100, NBC News reports. That's a 3.7% decline from 2014 and the lowest score since 2004. Of the 27 auto brands tracked by the survey, 15 showed a decline in customer satisfaction. Only two—Acura and BMW—showed any increase in satisfaction. CBS News reports the worst-rated cars—Fiat, Chrysler, and Jeep—are all owned by Fiat Chrysler, which also owns the low-scoring Dodge. The 64 million autos recalled last year appear to have hurt customer satisfaction. The founder of the survey tells NBC it's "alarming that so many [cars] have quality problems." And the increasing cost of cars—the average price is now more than $33,000—is coming as a surprise to people buying their first automobile in a decade. "We really become unhappy when we find any defect or are told we have to take our car in to have some kind of recall taken care of, even if it doesn't cost us anything," the director of the survey tells NBC. Overall, customers tend to be more satisfied with Asian- and European-made cars than their American-made counterparts.