EL PASO, Texas -- A recent survey shows U.S. car buyers are growing less satisfied with their purchases from domestic automakers while their Asian and European competitors continue to improve.

According to the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, Lexus and BMW tied for first place for customer satisfaction, Toyota and Honda came in second and bumped General Motors Corp.'s Buick and Cadillac brands to third place.

Experts said the decline comes at a time when U.S. companies are struggling to increase sales and market share.

Claes Fornell, the University of Michigan business professor who heads the annual survey, said traditionally, U.S. brands improve their customer satisfaction scores each year, just not as much as their overseas counterparts. Now, the domestic companies' ratings are declining while their competitors' scores continue to climb.

Domestic automakers are having the hardest time adapting to high gas prices and a shift in demand toward more fuel efficient vehicles, Fornell said.

"I've had a Mitsubishi Eclipse and now a Mitsubishi Montero. It saves a lot of gas, and as far as the engine, (I've had) no problems," said Jerry Espinoza, of west El Paso.

BMW gained one point to score 87, tying Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus luxury brand, which held the top spot alone last year. Toyota and Honda Motor Co. both rose two points to 86.

Several U.S. brands, by contrast, saw their ratings slump. Buick and Cadillac fell a point to a score of 85, while Chevrolet slipped three points to 79. GM's Saturn brand, however, jumped four points to 85, which Fornell said was largely due to the brand's better fuel economy.

Lincoln and Mercury lost three points to 83, while the score for Ford's namesake brand was unchanged at 80.

Chrysler LLC's brands fared the worst among the domestic automakers. Its Dodge and Jeep lines sat at the bottom of the 22-brand ranking, while its namesake brand shared the fifth-to-last spot with Ford. All of Chrysler's ratings came in below the average rating.

"This is the first American car I think I've bought, and it's really doing good," said Andrew Trotter, who recently bought a Chysler Sebring. He said what made him buy it was the price, but he likes Asian cars best.

"They have longevity. I had a Honda with 292,000 miles on it, and it didn't give me any trouble. I didn't have it in the shop much and it was good on gas. I was getting 37 or 38 miles per gallon. You can't beat that," said Trotter.

The telephone survey asked 5,500 people nationwide who bought cars within the past three years how their satisfaction level compared with expectations, how their vehicle compares with the ideal vehicle, and their overall satisfaction level, on a scale of zero to 100. The survey's margin of error is about two points for each car maker, Fornell said.