If you’re shopping for a new car but dreading the experience of sitting across from a car dealer dodging attacks on your wallet, consider a Jaguar or a Mercury product.  That’s the conclusion reached by J.D. Power and Associates’ 2009 Sales Satisfaction Index Study.

Edmunds Inside Line reports, “Jaguar ranks the highest among luxury brands while Audi ranks the lowest,” in results released Tuesday. Jaguar took the top spot in last year's survey as well. “Mercury ranks the highest among mass-market brands, while Mitsubishi is lowest, the study said.

For the study, J.D. Power interviewed about 48,000 new vehicle buyers who purchased or leased a vehicle in May or June of 2009.  J.D.Power’s researchers focused on the conduct of the salesperson, the ease of paperwork and the financing process, the delivery process, the comfort of the dealership facilities and the final sales price. 

Car dealers industry-wide are improving their customer service, the survey found.  In a press release, J.D. Power explains, “overall satisfaction averages 836 points on a 1,000-point scale in 2009, up by 11 points from 2008.”  But that result may not be surprising in the midst of a recession – dealers need to improve their customer service in order to remain competitive.

J.D. Power notes, “More than one in five shoppers who leave a dealership without purchasing a vehicle do so because they experienced poor treatment or dealer performance issues such as pricing games, sales pressure tactics or discourteous treatment.”  Forty-three percent of those buyers went on to purchase a car from a different dealer selling the same brand.  Fifty-seven percent went on to purchase from a different automaker.

Autoblog notes, “General Motors and Ford dealers fared very well in the survey, with all of their brands except Lincoln coming in over the industry average. Chrysler brands, however, did not do as well, with all three makes falling” below average. 

The top five luxury brands in the survey were Jaguar, Cadillac, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover.  Audi, Infiniti and Volvo brought up the rear.  Among affordable cars, Mercury, Smart, Buick, Pontiac and Chevrolet made up the top five, while Mitsubishi, Jeep and Dodge were the lowest performers.

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News awards for this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.