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…and Honda tops the list for the first time. Nearly 65 percent of new Honda purchases replace an older Honda, edging Toyota’s retention rate by 1.5 percent. Lexus comes in third with 60.4 percent retention, followed by Mercedes and BMW. Ford scored the highest of all domestic brands, capturing 6th place with 52.5 percent retention and barely edging Chevrolet which boasts an even 52 percent retention. Cadillac was the only other domestic brand coming in above the industry average of 48 percent. Jaguar scored the lowest in the survey, with only 26.2 percent retention. Pontiac was second to last with 27.2 percent, with only Mitsubishi and MINI joining it under 30 percent. Check out the full results in PDF form at JD Power’s site.
26 Comments on “2008 Customer Retention Survey Results Are In…...”
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Only 38% repeat buyers for Porsche. That is somewhat surprising to me considering the popularity of the brand among those that like sports cars. I would have guessed their retention to be somewhere greater than 60%, but maybe there are a lot of people buying them without knowing anything about cars.
After shooting itself in both feet this year, Toyota should suffer even more faithfuls departures.
I think 60% of retention of Porsche comes from former comedians and show hosts. The rest of folks have more common sense.
I think any high end brand will have high turn over. Buyers would shop for new experiences and after all there are too may (fill in the blank) on this street, i’m getting a…
autonut-“After shooting itself in both feet this year, Toyota…”
Sorry, not getting you. They built their buisness on reliable, if dull, vehicles. They still deliver that. JDP VDS, CR, and True Delta all show them to be at or near the top on the average. The latest CR survey shows that they have cleaned up last years problems (and fast, unlike some of their failing competitors).
They aren’t perfect, and are dull, but those predicting their demise are in for a very long wait.
They have earned their happy appliance buyers and are doing a good job keeping them.
I don’t desire their products but I respect their work.
Bunter
Ford and Chevy get a leg up from all of those little dealers in little towns.
Retention must be in the 90% range in some of those.
Suspect Pontiac gives a better idea of how GM plays in a competitve pool.
MINI is no surprise, when you marry or have kids it’s bye-bye MINI. I actually think the Clubman was a good move, and I think their sales this year support it. The regular is a 4 seater the way a 911 is.
I remember reading that 80% of Scion owners are Toyota newbies and when they move on 80% go Toyota brand.
I think critics of Toyota on this brand miss the reason it exists.
Just (another) thought.
Bunter
Only 38% repeat buyers for Porsche. That is somewhat surprising to me considering the popularity of the brand among those that like sports cars.
I would guess that this is affected by the definition of “retention.”
“Retention” means getting rid of one car that was purchased new and replacing it with another new car purchase. That means those who buy used cars and those who don’t get rid of a car in the process of buying another aren’t counted
I’m guessing that a lot of Porsche fans, particularly those who buy 911’s, buy their Porsches as second and third vehicles. They trade their daily drivers, but hang on to the Porsche. They may also buy a used model from a private party. These sorts of buyers won’t be included in the data.
But I do have to wonder about the Cayenne buyers, and whether those vehicles create a path of loyalty to the rest of the brand. If anyone knows the answer to this, please feel free to share.
I guess I’m a little surprised to see Mazda at only 30%. I’ve been considering buying a Mazda for the first time (a 3 or a 6) after being mainly owning only Hondas and Nissans for a while.
Honda get well-deserved praise. They have been an engineering-focused company for, well, forever.
Continual improvement, efficiency (at least until recently), fanatics about quality.
I’ll admit to being a Honda fan. We’ve owned 4 Hondas and/or Acuras, and they’ve all been excellent vehicles.
Goes to show you what happens when a company stays lasered-in on their goals and values.
Bunter1: I think any high end brand will have high turn over. Buyers would shop for new experiences and after all there are too may (fill in the blank) on this street, i’m getting a…
Way, way back in the Dark Ages – the 1950s and 1960s – Cadillac had the highest level of repeat ownership of any brand in the country. It also had the best resale value, too.
How times change!
Bunter1: Ford and Chevy get a leg up from all of those little dealers in little towns.
Retention must be in the 90% range in some of those.
I’ll bet it’s their full-size pickups and SUVs. People I know who buy a full-size pickup tend to be very brand loyal.
These numbers are pretty meaningless. What counts is customer retention within auto groups.
For instance, if someone switches from Toyota to Lexus it would count as a loss for Toyota, but it’s really not.
If someone switches from Pontiac to Chevy it’s not a loss for GM.
geeber-Ya, back when Caddy was high end!
Saw a survey on buying PUs a year or two back, the number one reason people chose them now is price.
But I agree they tend to be the last “stand buy my brand” crowd.
Honda’s showing is especially strong when you consider they have limited truck offerings. They do not have “something for everyone”.
Also heard that Honda buyers will cross shop Toyota and vice-versa but both groups virtually ignore the rest of the market.
Obiously no other none luxury marque is even close.
Without “patriotic” buying imagine where the domestics would be.
Well actually I think the “patriots” have enabled their decline. Without them the Debt 3 would have got the message when there was still time.
Just sayin’
Bunter
Heresay, but plausible.
Cheerio,
Bunter
Mazda is at 30 percent because people buy a Mazda3 then decide they need to settle down and buy an Accord or Camry. The Mazda6 hasn’t been competitive enough. The new one might fix this.
I am not surprised that the Honda is on top.
Here’s what I’ve always said, based on experience with TrueDelta:
1. Toyotas are bought by people who don’t want to expend time and effort on research, but want a trouble-free car. So they buy what they hear is the most trouble-free car.
2. Hondas are bought by people who also want a trouble-free car but also like to do a lot of research. After which they buy another Honda.
I guess I’m a little surprised to see Mazda at only 30%. I’ve been considering buying a Mazda for the first time (a 3 or a 6) after being mainly owning only Hondas and Nissans for a while.
Mazda doesn’t offer much of an upgrade path. You start with the 3, but there’s little incentive to move to a 6 until recently, nor do they have a cheap people-mover other than the excellent (but small and underpromoted 5). Put it this way, Toyota and Honda make it easy:
Yaris/Corolla ->Corolla/Camry/RAV ->Camry/Sienna/Highlander ->Avalon/ES
Fit/Civic ->Accord/CRV ->Oddy/Pilot ->Accord/TL
With Mazda:
3 ->CX-9
That’s a horrible leap to ask someone to make. If they promoted the 5 a little more they might have a chance. Mazda has a few good models, but they’re very thin on the middle ground. VW has a similar problem, which is why (for better or worse) the Routan and Passat CC exist.
Customer retention is partly about quality, but also about having cars to sell to people when their needs change. Porsche knows this, which is why it has the Cayenne and Panamera–better people stay with Porsche than go to BMW when they need more than the 911’s jump seats. Saturn had the same problem, and it lost them a lot of S-Series owners who would have stuck with them, if they had had anything to buy other than another S-Series. By the time the L, Vue, Relay (barf) and Outlook showed up, it was too late.
I have problems with this survey. If you go from Toyota to Lexus, or Chevy to Caddy, you aren’t counted as a loyal customer (because you switched makes). For example, I personally went from Toyota to Scion-that doesn’t count. I also don’t count because the Toyota I replaced the Scion with was purchased used, not new, and this only counts people who replaced a car they purchased new with another new car of the exact same make. It should be a survey of people who replace a vehicle (purchased new or used) with another vehicle (purchased new or used) made by the same manufacturer (any brand made by the same manufacturer).
Mazda doesn’t offer much of an upgrade path. You start with the 3, but there’s little incentive to move to a 6 until recently, nor do they have a cheap people-mover other than the excellent (but small and underpromoted 5). Put it this way, Toyota and Honda make it easy:
I guess I’m not following the traditional upgrade path. I started with the Honda CRX (I loved that car), then Mitsu Eclipse (93 model, when they didn’t suck), then Nissan Maxima, and now looking to go to a Mazda 3. I have 4 kids now, but rarely pack the fam in the Maxima – that’s why I have an Odyssey. Since I’m usually alone in my car, I think I’m ok “downgrading” to a 3. Seems like a fun, sporty car.
The E92 BMW M3 coupe is NOT growing on me, and I will be keeping my ’06 M3 coupe for a while. Things will be interesting very soon given the fact BMW’s M division has said they are going to turbos by around 2010. Maybe then I’ll buy.
@mrog71: You should seriously consider a Mazda5. It rides on the Mazda3’s chassis and shares the 2.3L engine and most of it’s handling dynamics (I’ve driven both), but with lots more room. The Mazda5 was built just for a person like yourself: need to haul kids/people but you’re not ready to give up a sporty drive.
You should seriously consider a Mazda5.
Thanks – I’ll take a look at them, although I’ve seen them on the road and don’t remember being impressed aesthetically.
How does Jaguar pull off something like a first place finish in JD Power’s “Customer Satisfaction” survey but then scores incredibly low in their customer retention survey? Lame. That’s why I don’t really trust some of this stuff.
EJ_San_Fran :
These numbers are pretty meaningless. What counts is customer retention within auto groups.
For instance, if someone switches from Toyota to Lexus it would count as a loss for Toyota, but it’s really not.
If someone switches from Pontiac to Chevy it’s not a loss for GM.
I can see GM bitching about getting the short stick here, but looking at total lexus sales (scion, acura etc) the top two aren’t going to move around much if at all. GM however could try and make a case that they have great retention rates on their classic upgrade path.
I suspect the truth is more along the lines of bunters comments about shopping honda vs toyota though.
1. Toyotas are bought by people who don’t want to expend time and effort on research, but want a trouble-free car. So they buy what they hear is the most trouble-free car.
2. Hondas are bought by people who also want a trouble-free car but also like to do a lot of research. After which they buy another Honda.…
Phrased another way, Toyotas are purchased by those who don’t really like driving and want a reliable appliance. Here, Toyota is tops. Hondas, on the other hand, can fill the roll of Toyota, but also offer something to those who enjoy the pleasure of driving. A win-win to me.
I don’t see the significance of retention rates. If the manufacturer of your current vehicle doesn’t build the kind you want to buy next, it makes no sense to buy something unsuitable just to stay with the same brand.
We used to own a Honda Civic hatchback. In 1998, we replaced it with a Subaru Legacy wagon. The closest Honda could come to an all wheel drive sedan or wagon was the CRV and that wasn’t close enough. In a few years, we expect to replace the Subaru with a pickup or SUV with a 5,000 pound towing capacity. It won’t be a Subaru because they don’t make anything like that.
IMO, a Mazda 3 represents a good value in the entry level segment. However, there is a certain “cheapness” of the product that dissuades repeat purchases.
I really can’t agree with this:
Michael Karesh :
1. Toyotas are bought by people who don’t want to expend time and effort on research, but want a trouble-free car. So they buy what they hear is the most trouble-free car.
2. Hondas are bought by people who also want a trouble-free car but also like to do a lot of research. After which they buy another Honda.
Toyota has been on top of the retention rate numbers for decades. Toyota buyers buy more Toyotas because they’ve owned them for decades and never had problems with them.
Personally, my family has owned Toyotas on about a 10-to-1 basis compared to Hondas. The two Hondas I’ve owned have been the only two cars I’ve ever referred to as “rattletraps,” and both had significant interior wear I’ve never seen on any Toyota. One (1991 model year) driver seat was 100% toast at 50,000 miles (foam padding dissolved into dust), the other (2004 model year) had substantial leather failure at 20,000 miles. Honda just doesn’t meet this Toyota owner’s quality standards, period.
Of all the Toyota owners I know — really, every single one — prior, satisfied ownership was their reason for buying a new one, and virtually no other brands whatsoever were considered.
Of all the Honda owners I know, I can think of one who did research. Frankly, all of the others I know are “single mothers” who actually wound up getting hosed with undercoating, paint protection, and other nonsense, easily to the tune of over a thousand bucks per car.
“Anecdotal,” of course, but I think your “non-thinking Toyota owner” bit is out of line both in reality and in professional discourse. Yeah, sure, Toyota is boring, unthinking — go ahead and keep feeding the stereotype. Or, you could actually talk to Toyota owners, who have depended upon them for decades’ worth of durable, reliable, high-quality, low-maintenance motoring.
Hard not to buy another Honda after owning one. I had two, sold them, bought two Jeeps, and well I then wanted a well built, nice to drive, great mpg car. So I just bought another one to have with my two Jeeps.
Now as far as Jeep… the only 42% reflects some of us that will never get rid of their Wranglers (unless we roll it). :)
I drive an Opel Astra Twin Top and a BMW 120I, bought the Opel first, but there was no sense in me investing in another FWD for a hatchback. The variety satisfies driving pleasure tremendously.