With TTAC bringing retail market share into its year-end sales analysis, we’re fascinated by the results of Consumer Reports’ Car Brand Perception Survey. The results show Toyota falling slightly but holding onto the top spot, and Ford making strides towards overtaking the Japanese Juggernaut. That trend at the top absolutely comports with our retail market share data for 2010, as does Honda’s less-dramatic slide in favor. CR also shows Chevy losing some ground in most of the survey’s rating areas, especially “Design/Style,” where the bowtie brand dropped out of the top five brands. Still, Chevy does surprisingly well in the CR survey, considering it lost more retail share than any other brand besides Toyota. Between TTAC’s year-end retail share numbers and CR’s brand perception survey, industry-watchers now have more ways than ever to track the performance of automotive brands in the minds of consumers, rather than as measured by sheer volume.
That makes sense to me. I used to think Ford was a bad joke, but If I had to buy a new car this minute, it would probably either be a Fiesta, a Fusion, or the new V6 mustang.
Chevy’s good showing is shocking to me! Except for the Vette and the Yukon, they’ve always seemed cheap and bland.
Volkswagen’s & Mini’s poor showing is equally surprising. They always seemed like the premium of “normal” cars to me. Maybe it’s the reliability perception.
No idea why this chart includes Suzuki, Isuzu, and Mini but leaves out Hyundai, Kia, Chrysler, Dodge, Nissan, & Mazda. I guess they must all be between 19 & 50.
Well, the Yukon isn’t a Chevy. But you are forgetting about the Camaro, which looks pretty hot to a lot of people, but not to others. But which part are you talking about being shocking? The quality part, the design style part? I mean, if you want to talk about bland, Honda and Toyota have to be right up there at the top.
Besides, perception isn’t reality. Several brands rated above Toyota in reliability, but it is still perceived as number 1 in the category.
Actually, Chevy’s showing is not good.
I think the best way to read the rankings is grouping brands by market share.
The biggest-selling brands for 2010 were:
1. Ford (1.8M)
2. Chevy (1.6M)
3. Toyota (1.5M)
4. Honda (1.1M)
So naturally, they get the top 4 spots in the CR popularity contest.
Now, look at the CR ranking relative to # sales:
+2 Toyota (1)
+1 Honda (3)
-1 Ford (2)
-2 Chevy (4)
In this context, Chevy is not doing well. Tho this correlates well with retail sales excluding fleet.
Now, look at luxury brands:
1. Lexus (230k)
2. Benz (225k)
3. BMW (220k)
4. Buick (155k)
5. Caddy (146k)
Note that Buick and Caddy start out down quite a bit in volume.
When you look at luxury rankings:
+2 BMW (1)
+1 Caddy (4)
+0 Benz (2)
-1 Buick (5+)
-2 Lexus (3)
BMW & Caddy are doing very well, while Buick and Lexus are lagging.
CR #10 Subaru was #11 in overall volume, just topping VW & Mazda, but they jumped at least 6 spots over Nissan, Hyundai, Dodge, Kia, GMC & Jeep. That’s a strong result for a small player.
CR #5 Volvo was #27 in volume, one of the lowest sellers of all. It’s a huge jump up for them based on very strong “safety” marketing.
Now, if you look at the bottom 10, you get this result:
-9 Jeep (8)
-6 VW (10)
-4 Mitsu (3)
-2 Suzuki (2)
-2 Mercury (7)
-1 Land Rover (4)
+0 Isuzu (1)
+3 Saab (5)
+3 Jaguar (6)
+3 Mini (9)
With sales as a guide to how well-known the brands are, Jeep has a *horrible* result – lots of people buy them, but few say anything good on CR’s survey. VW & Mitsu are similarly failing very badly. Suzuki, Mercury, and Land Rover are all doing rather badly from a mindshare standpoint. Saab, Jaguar, and Mini, however are all doing clearly better than their sales suggest, so their position on the Bottom 10 list shouldn’t be held against them.
I pulled 4-year cumulative sales data, and Chevy might not be doing so badly in perception after all.
The biggest-selling brands since 2007 were:
1. Toyota (7.3M)
2. Ford (7.0M)
3. Chevy (7.0M)
4. Honda (4.8M)
5. Nissan (3.3M)
This is total sales, including fleet.
So looking at CR ranking:
+1 Honda (4)
+0 Toyota (1)
+0 Ford (2)
-1 Chevy (3)
-6 Nissan (5)
In this context, Chevy isn’t doing quite so badly, especially when compared to Nissan, which isn’t even in the Top 10.
Now, looking at luxury brands:
1. Lexus (1.0M)
2. BMW (960k)
3. Benz (894k)
4. Caddy (632k)
5. Buick (581k)
When you look again at luxury rankings:
+1 BMW (1)
+1 Benz (2)
+0 Caddy (4)
-0 Buick (5)
-2 Lexus (3)
Lexus still lags, some of the shine comes off BMW & Caddy, and Buick is probably doing OK.
CR #10 Subaru was #17 in overall volume, so they jumped 7 spots. Still quite a strong result for a small player.
CR #5 Volvo was #29 in volume, one of the lowest sellers of all. It’s potentially a bigger jump up. Most likely, it’s an artifact of how CR calculates the aggregate as the sum of all mentions, allowing the very strong “safety” score to carry through.
I may look at the bottom 10 vs 4-year sales later.
Cue up the sad trombone for VW.
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Digging a little deeper, and looking at the individual categories, CR claims that Ford actually is #1 in “Value” perception and Ford’s “Quality” perception is now ahead of Toyota.
Toyota actually took major hits (often double digit drops) in many categories. They still have a big lead over everyone in “Green” perception though, which is what gave them #1 overall.
Volvo made the overall top ten largely because 70% of people surveyed consider it to be #1 in safety, which CR states is the most important perception factor this year.
What was CR’s methodology? Is this a valid statistical sample or are they taking educated guesses with inadequate data? When was the data collected?
I’m surprised to see Chevrolet in the top five. Stunned to see Mini on the worst list. Lexus’ low showing is another indicator, although one of the top brands, that this is a brand that is losing relevancy with consumers as I stated yesterday.
For all the wails that I was wishing for a Toyota death yesterday (yet no one could point to exactly where I said it), Mercedes Benz and BMW are both higher in perception. Lexus may still be in the lead, barely at the end of 2010 but the trend data shows that it is likely if rate of growth continues that BMW and Mercedes Benz (IF and only IF you count Sprinter vans) will likely pass Lexus (closer to a three way tie at the end of the year). These results don’t suprise me.
I’m going to guess Buick, Mazda, Hyundai and Kia are somewhere in the middle?
From the linked CR piece:
The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a random, nationwide telephone survey Dec. 2-6, 2010, contacting 2,019 adults. The Center collected the survey data from 1,721 adults in households that had at least one car.
Overall brand perception is an index calculated as the total number of times that a particular make was mentioned as exemplar across all seven categories, divided by the total unaided mentions. (Interview subjects were asked what brands exemplified the traits instead of being read a list of brands.) That approach compensates for awareness level, ensuring that every brand has an equal chance of leading a category, not just the best-selling or most well known brands.
Category scores reflect the number of times that the particular make was mentioned as an exemplar of the particular attribute, again corrected for awareness.
As I understand the methodology of getting people to name brands, it’s mostly a popularity contest which larger, well-known, popular brands would naturally have a large advantage over smaller, less-common brands.
Thus, it is pretty much a given that sales-leading Chevy, Ford, Honda, & Toyota would get the top spots. Dodge/Chrysler being pretty much a given non-competitor their current situation.
In this context, tiny, value-oriented Subaru having a top 10 ranking is pretty amazing for edging out vastly more popular (and equally fast-growing) Hyundai & Kia.
Similarly, Caddy did well to get into the top 10 ranking with Lexus, BMW, & Benz – unlike Audi, Acura & Lincoln, at least they’re on the map in terms of mindshare.
The oddball is Volvo, which I take to be a legacy carryover from their historical “safety” association.
SVX pearlie
The missing piece of the puzzle is ownership. Hyundai is selling more cars now, but more people own Subarus than Hyundais. Certain demographics have been buying Subarus in moderate numbers for decades, while Hyundai’s sales are growing in large percentages as people forget what happened to earlier Hyundai owners.
Big sellers like Chevy and Chrysler that aren’t getting full recognition aren’t getting it because they sell cars to Avis, Hertz, and Enterprise instead of private customers.
@CJ: Since 07, Subie sold only 850k vehicles vs Hyundai selling 1.84M vehicles, I doubt that more people own Subies than Hyundai. If they do, it’s only because their Subies last so much longer than a Hyundai that they make it up on longevity so the ownership period is longer. I actually saw a GL the other day when I was down in SD, which blew my mind – I hadn’t seen one in years and thought they had all gone to the Subaru graveyard in the sky.
I don’t think Hyundai got a free pass, per se – their sales numbers suggest they should be in the top 10. Over the past 4 years, Hyundai is #7 in total sales, so they have a poor -4 performance (at best), and it could be far worse, perhaps a -10 relative performance. Subie jumped up roughly as many spots as Hyundai dropped – a clear overperformer.
I also agree that the numbers should (and appear to) track strongly against retail sales. If I had retail sales data by brand for the past 3 years, rather than just 2010 total sales data, I could probably do a better job of correlating the CR data to understand winners and losers.
This squares with my seat-of-the pants take on the current market. I had kind of understood that Toyota Honda and Ford are roughly equally well thought of these days. I was surprised that there was so much space between Ford and Honda.
I echo Stryker1: While Chrysler is my sentimental favorite, if I were to lay down some of my own hard-earned money on a new car right now, I would consider a Ford to be the safer bet. My last new car was a Honda Fit, but my Honda-love is cooling, especially with their bigger stuff.
Well, yeah, Chrysler sucks… But Ford does not offer an off-road platform except F-150. I was kinda sad about it.
If you read the methodology, the survey asked respondents what brands they thought of when they thought of quality. They then recorded whatever the person said. If a make was not mentioned it was scored lower.
For instance, when “safety” was brought up over 70% said Volvo. One concludes this is due to Volvo marketing as their ads have always stressed safety, and is not an indication that people believe Volvo is 70% safer than any other brand.
“Brand perception” needs defining and done so in a manner leaving no doubt as to what the definition is in the minds of those surveyed, polled, questioned or whatever activity the one(s) amassing data are doing.
Interesting, most people rated safety has the number 1 concern buying a car. About 65%. Safety highest brand perception belongs to Volvo, who is no where near number 1 in sales. I am starting to wonder about surveys…
I think when people respond to surveys, they respond in ways that do not reflect what they really do. Or it could be that by “safety” folks mean “an SUV bigger than the one my neighbor just bought in case we collide getting out of the neighborhood”.
Volvo is relatively expensive. Actually, while it’s true Volvo used to be far and away tops in perceived safety, I don’t think it is anymore. A lot of cars are quite safe, and Volvo doesn’t have an edge here anymore.
Agreed. Folks might say safety is top concern in these surveys but when it comes to an actual purchase, safety probably falls into the top five or six.
Wow! I’m suprised VW scored that high.
Those are puzzling results for sure. Chevrolet above Lexus? Jeep seems way lower than I would have ever expected, too.
The CR survey is a popularity / familiarity contest. Chevy is one of the top-selling brands and outsells Lexus by a vast margin, so from a popularity standpoint, it should do “better”.
Jeep is simply horrible.
Please see my posts above for more details of how I interpret the data.
Pity how Volvo has squandered their brand value. Now they are stuck — can’t compete on price with mainstream brands, but don’t have the goods to compete with luxury brands.
Ford marketing has done amazing job controlling the media message. At the same time, the Obama administration has done an amazing hit job on Toyota. The Consumer Report study is capturing these two effects.
While Toyota and Honda have the best products on the planet, Ford has the best marketing department in the industry.
The American way. Build average products, then pump them with marketing.
But wait…in the previous Ford post you crowed about how Ford only ends up in 10th place in the CR reliability standings. How is it that Ford marketing controls the media? If Ford marketing did control the media, wouldn’t they be gaming the reliability standings? CR is media, after all.
And how does the Obama administration putting a hit on Toyota have anything to do with Ford’s perception climb? Wouldn’t Obama be putting the hex on Ford aas well? You know, to assist Gubment Motors?
I understand that you may have an axe to grind with Ford, but if it’s due to Ford vehicles you owned over a decade ago, you’re missing out on the new and vibrant Ford of today. Ford is not the same company it was just a short five or six years ago.
I am a converted former Toyota fanboi – everytime since 2001 (when we bought a Toyota Sienna as a company vehicle) that we have looked at cars, for both personal and company use, Toyota has been found wanting. We replaced the Sienna with a 2006 Rav4, and regret that we passed on an Escape – the Rav has been a huge disappointment compared to the Sienna and my wife’s Focus.
My business partner and I are now looking seriously at an Escape, Transit Connect, as well as a Hyundai Santa Fe or Elantra Touring, among others to replace the Rav4.
Only 6 or 7 short years ago, Ford wasn’t even on our radar. Toyota or Honda were the only default choices.
Don’t let your irrational bias blind you to the fact that every automaker can change their stripes – if Hyundai/Kia can do it, why not Ford? And if Hyundai/Kia or Ford can climb up the mountain, is it really a surprise that Honda and Toyota have slipped a bit?
Take off the bitter old man glasses, and look objectively at Ford – it’s not the world dominating evil genius you make it out to be.
I thought the American way was to give the keys to City Hall to the wealthy and convince the average guys to vote the way the wealthy do in hopes that they might some day be part of the elite group or at least come across as part of it. Kind of like buying something at Home Depot and putting the packaging out at the curb in a Expo bag…
With Hyundai/Kia at #6 in US sales, the people in CR’s survey apparently are all talk about “perception” until they actually go to spend their money.
Actually, Hyundai / Kia are just getting punished for making beige budget cars up until recently. Their older cars form the lack of a positive impression on the overall US customer base.
@SVX pearlie: I think you’re right, although for some reason Toyota and Honda are rewarded for producing “beige budget cars”. And lately, that’s what they epitomize.
Brand perception = boring cars are perceived the best?
Honda has no one to blame but themselves for being behind boring Toyota and American Ford. Make UGLY cars that trade on their reliability goodwill from the 90’s (while not delivering on that promise) and that’s what will happen.
Toyota and Honda better pay attention. They are the GM and Ford of the 70’s and 80’s.
I think it’s strange that VW is lower, but I guess CR only thinks of Americans buying cars? Since the car was invented a VW has been a Top 5 best seller, period. The most reliable and durable cars in the world. Except among CR readers?
Good for Ford for having the smarts to hire Mullaly all those years ago.
I often wonder about that. VW is the poster boy for $hit reliability, much like the Chevy Citation of the 80s. Yet worldwide they sell really well. Makes me think that they are not as bad as they are made out to be. I can believe that because I’ve owned a few domestic cars that were far far better than the general public made them out to be. I guess Detroit is not the only car builder with a perception gap. Either that or the cost of the repairs/crappy dealer service poison the experience…
It’s a popularity / brand association recall contest. By default, every brand should rank more-or-less in direct proportion to its sales. If a brand is ranked higher, then it’s doing well. If lower, then there are problems.
The CR spin is basically useless – I think it’s utter crap, and not a good use of the data, given their methodology.
VW being #10 on the “worst” list is a direct reflection of their horrible reliabilty / whatever, because they are ranked far, far lower than their sales popularity would suggest.
That CR survey may be of dubious value, but for what it’s worth, here is my perception of the 2010 Escape Limited I bought eight months ago: it was put together superbly. I have not found even one flaw, either in fit, finish or function. Back in the 60’s a new car would have to go back for fixes under warranty several times in the first year. So Ford is doing something right, as are the people in Kansas City (Mikey’s UAW brothers and sisters, by the way) with the welders, screwdrivers and wrenches.
50merc:
I’ll go you a little better. My ’05 Focus is closing in on 6 years old (hecho en Mexico June 30, 2005), and the fit and finish is still as good as when the car was brand new (in-service date of July 31, 2005). There’s still no squeaks, rattles, or loose trim, and the doors and hatch still close with the same “thunk” as when new. No warranty fixes in the initial factory warranty period, and one warranty repair under the extended warranty.
If the HVAC fan is turned off, you still can’t tell if the motor’s running unless you’re within three feet of the engine compartment, it’s that quiet. Still on the original clutch, brake pads and shoes, in fact I haven’t even had to replace any light bulbs! I’m looking at replacing the original factory tires and battery this year, and I think I will have to spruce up the headlight lenses, but other than that the car will have been cost free other than regular maintenance.
Yes, it helps that I change the oil every 3,000 miles, and wash, wax, detail and treat the leather on a regular basis. I also adhere to Ford’s maintenance schedule, but consider the cost of doing so as an investment for the future.
Based on our experience with the Focus, and on my recommendations, three other members of our family have purchased Ford products – a 2008 Escape, a 2007 Focus, and a 2010 Focus. So far? Exactly the same story as our Focus. Not one issue in warranty, and the three are as well assembled as ours was.
Two of my employees are actively shopping Ford (Fusion and Edge, respectively), and now my neighbour is talking about replacing his POS Jeep Liberty with a new Ford Explorer.
By putting some effort into lower-margin, less expensive vehicles, Ford has earned some conquest sales in my circle of family and friends. I believe that the Consumer Reports perception survey, and the upward movement of Ford’s reliability ratings in CR and other publications is well deserved. So yes, I have become a Ford fanboi, something which I never thought would be possible a decade ago.
I don’t dismiss other TTAC commentators when they disparage Ford, but I have some concern that they’re basing their perceptions on Ford as it was 10 or 15 years ago, and are ignoring the very obvious, to me anyway, complete reversal of fortunes since Alan Mullaly was recruited by Bill Ford to propel Ford out of its doldrums.
+1 to Monty. We have a 2005 Focus ST with 115K. It has been trouble free, no rattles, squeeks or bits falling off. We have gone through more wear items than Monty…especially tires and brakes. We are nearing the end of the life of our third set of tires. The original Pirellis lasted 35K, replaced with Bridgestone Potenzas that lasted 40K and now Eagle GTs. Admitedly we are somewhat hoonish. We have replaced front bearings and are now due for front struts. These are all wear items. Nothing has broken. We also have a 2006 Freestyle which has been trouble free. Like Monty we follow the maintenance manual. Our cars are longterm investments and we treat them as such
cdnsfan27 – The original Pirellis have lasted this long because I invested in Blizzaks and another set of OEM rims for winter use. Because we live in Manitoba, winter lasts damn near 6 months. We’ve got close to 50,000 kms on the Pirellis, so they’ll be replaced at the end of the season this year.
I guess, with you being a Habs fan, you’re probably a fellow Canuck, so you can relate to the winter!
So far, cross my fingers, no bearing or strut issues, but if you’re driving in Montreal, that may explain the wear and tear on struts and tires, especially if you’re hooning around because it’s an ST!
Monty, I’m originally from Quebec City but have spent the last ten years in Washington DC and now live in Tampa. The bad roads in DC may have contributed to the strut issue but I will admit to the hoonery. The ST is almost invisible to the cops as it looks like the ordinary Focus. It is a hoot to drive though with the Mazda 2.3 and the Euro Focus suspension. Best deal I ever got too as they were not selling in Feb 05 when I bought it. Sheehy Ford in Springfield VA had 6 lined up in the back of the lot $21K MSRP had people scared off but I drove out with my ST fully loaded for $18K. Still love it and wouldn’t change a thing about it other than it eats brakes and tires. Of course if we drove it like an old man it wouldn’t…but what would be the point. My wife drives it to work as she has the longer commute and her co-workers seeing her screech in in a cloud of brake dust (and her two recent speeding tickets) have nicknamed her Danica. She is a southern girl and drives fast. So does her mom in her Acura TSX, her sister in her baby Lexus and her other sister in her Acura TSX…all nurses by the way
“Overall Brand Perception” — are those in metric or US units?
Uh, where’s Porsche?!?
BTW, can any CR subscribers give me a breakdown of the dots, colors, and shadings for ’08 Cayman?
Only one of those results particularly surprises me — the relatively low ranking of the MINI brand. I don’t know what all of the categories were that CU used in the survey — certainly the size of the MINI alone is going to condemn it to a low ranking on the “safety” factor, based on appearances alone. If I were BMW AG, I don’t know whether I would be concerned or not about this. On one hand, the MINI, more than any other car, is marketed and sold as a pure “fashion statement” vehicle. If you want a min-vehicle, there are lots of other choices that are cheaper, more reliable and more functional (can anyone take the rear seat in the MINI seriously as a place for other than your dog or your 10-year old?). So, I might be concerned about the brand’s fate if it fell out of fashion. On the other hand, the MINI — at least as originally introduced — did not try to be all things to all buyers. The original branding strategy was to target a segment of the market precisely and reap the rewards — i.e. be a niche brand. With the introduction of the “countryman” I’m not sure BMW AG is comfortable with that original strategy. You could defend the introduction of the “clubman” as a response to those buyers who wanted a serviceable back seat for adults. But, a jacked-up AWD MINI? I don’t get it.
Re Toyota: I think the de-contenting of Toyota is pretty obvious to everyone, not just gear heads. As the owner of two Previas, when we went back into the market in 2008 for a CUV, we shopped, among others, the Highlander. My wife immediately complained about the look of the interior and the “chunk of foam” seats — even on the top line, leather model, whereas the seats on our top-line Previa were fabulous. I liked the engine and drivetrain of the Highlander; and the handling was not bad. However, it was to be my wife’s car . . . and she preferred the interior of the top-line Pilot, even though the Pilot’s handling was more ponderous and its engine/drivetrain were admittedly inferior. Also, in her mind, the purpose of an SUV or a CUV is relentlessly practical. That means that it really should be a box on wheels. So, she takes points off for swoopy styling that compromises interior space and/or utility. This completely nixed the MDX for her — she wasn’t even interested in driving it. And the then-new GM CUVs Outlook/Envoy/Enclave seemed larger to her than the Pilot, with not that much more interior room and, in the case of the Enclave, utility compromises in favor of styling.
If it had been my choice, I would have gone for the Enclave. I was very impressed by it — a far more civilized vehicle than either the Pilot or the Highlander. And, having driven both the Outlook and the Enclave, I found both to drive “smaller” than they actually were . . . a good thing.
The Enclave is enormous. One of our friends has one, and it’s cavernous. With some mats/tarps, you can carry an awful lot in one of those, even tho it’s not as “butch” as the squared-off Pilot.
Buick should be replacing it in a few years, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with it at that time.
WRT the Mini, please see my earlier post. Being #9 on the “worst” list isn’t a bad thing when you consider how few Mini are sold.