Yes, we’re talking #brands, because brand value is a point of pride for all companies, not just automakers. In the latest ranking of brand value, it seems Toyota needn’t worry about losing its lofty perch among automakers.
For the fourth year, the Japanese automaker beat out all other car companies in the 2017 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking published by market research company Kantar Millward Brown. Valued at $28.66 billion, Toyota sits in the 30th spot, one notch above Walmart. That’s two spots lower than last year’s rankings, something Toyota can blame on increase costs and a weak yen.
The ranking also contains good news for Ford and troubling news for BMW.
Bavaria’s most famous automaker was booted from the top spot among automakers in 2013, resting in second place ever since. However, competition from its main German rival is fierce. With a brand value of $24.56 billion, BMW’s status eroded significantly in the past year, placing third-place finisher Mercedes-Benz within striking distance of its podium. Mercedes received a brand valuation of $23.51 billion this year.
This year’s list sees Honda and Ford switch places, with the only Detroit Three entry moving up to fourth place. Rounding out the top 10 most valuable automakers are Nissan, Audi, Tesla, Land Rover and Porsche. Among the top global brands, Nissan ranks 100th. Tesla made its first appearance in the top 10 automakers last year, ranked in the last spot, making its rapid elevation newsworthy.
“The Tesla story is interesting because it is not just the cars it offers now, it is the promise for the future,” Peter Walshe, Global BrandZ director at Kantar Millward Brown, told Automotive News. “There is a perception that it offers a fantastic brand experience, even among non-owners. The only other brands that I’ve seen have this kind of appeal before they got into mass market were Apple and Facebook.”
Promise for the future isn’t everything with would-be buyers, however. The actual experience of owning a high quality product counts for much more, which explains Toyota’s dominance of the segment. The automaker is “seen as a reliable, quality value brand,” said Walshe.
Kantar Millward Brown compiles its annual list from data gained from 3 million consumer interviews.
[Image: Toyota]
Scion
Most brilliant brand ever.
Was stuck with a brand new Toyota RAV-4 as a rental over the weekend because Sixt was not available in the city I was traveling to, the rental place messed up my online category reservation, and I couldn’t get another vehicle (long story) due to very pressing time constraints –
– but I have a hate-filled rant to share that most people who are cynical yet realistic will enjoy:
FK YOU, TOYOTA, DIRECTLY UP YOUR A$$ WITH A LONG, SHARP, POINTY OBJECT!!!!
I am *literally* shocked as to how far Toyota has fallen in terms of interior quality, fit/finish, drivetrain (lack of) refinement, a$$ ride quality, stupid-looking switchgear and gauges, flimsy build quality, wheezing engines, and other attributes I’d sooner associate with a circa-2002 Kia (it’s a major insult to Kia to even mention them in the same sentence as the 2017 Scrapyota CRAP-4 I was stuck with for 36 hours, as Kia is superior in *every*way).
I have a buddy whose kid has a 2004 Honda CRV that rides like and has the interior and exterior build quality and fit and finish superiority of something like a Mercedes E Class when contrasted with the total pieces of sh!t SH!TYOTA FUK-4 that I wanted to drive into a concrete embankment Aubrey McClendon-style, at 90 mph or higher (but I’d bail out, unlike Aubrey, just before impact), assuming the FAKYOTA PLASTC-4 was able to hold together long enough at speeds above 65 mph.
FAK YOU, TOYOTA. YOUR FOUNDER WOULD ROLL IN HIS GRAVE IF HE SAW WHAT YOU’VE DONE WITH HIS HARD-BIRTHED COMPANY.
The next time someone even mentions RAV-4 to me, in addition to Yaris, Echo, Coronal or a few other highly sketchy TOILETYOTA vehicles, I will stab them squarely and with 420 lbs feet of torque in the esophagus with a fountain pen or pencil, and drop kick them in their ear/temple region before their body hits the floor, before dragging their gasping-for-breath body to the nearest RAV-4, buckling them in the driver’s seat,putting a cinder block on the accelerator, and popping that sucker in drive pointed towards the nearest cliff.p or steep ravine or concrete/steel abutment.
I hear you deadweight. The all important question here though is, where does this car stand in relation to the ats? Would you choose the cadillac?
Based on what they are advertised as, and marketed as, per their respective manufacturer, and their sticker price (and real-world depreciation and reliability), the ATS is worse, but the RAV-4 is a wretched vehicle nonetheless, and I’d pass on both even if they were damn near free (life is too short to drive POS vehicles).
I am maintaining that “peak goodness” for vehicles was mid 1990s to mid 2000s, depending on manufacturer and model.
Vehicles manufactured since 2012, and in many cases since 2008 or even 2004, worse in terms of quality, interior materials, NVH, ride quality, etc., than their successors (Honda/Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Toyota/Lexus, etc., etc.).
Yea, I’m close to buying the mintiest 2008 Jaguar XJ I can find and just maintaining it until AVs are mandated.
I highly endorse this financial mistake.
Tell me more about the “2004 Toyota CRV”, oh wise sage of all things vehicular.
Hit the drink earlier than usual today, did you?
We could ask the same of you DW. :D
I’m only cranky when sober.
I actually agree with you. I was looking at a ’17 RAV-4 yesterday, and the interior was rather dismal. The carpet was especially horrid, it didn’t even look like carpet.
more like shiny painted burlap.
THANK YOU.
Last year my wife and I rented a brand new Toyota RAV-4 to drive from Long Beach to Death Valley. It was a FWD LE, and the only option it had was floor mats.
…I am *literally* shocked as to how far Toyota has fallen in terms of interior quality, fit/finish, drivetrain (lack of) refinement, a$$ ride quality, stupid-looking switchgear and gauges, flimsy build quality, wheezing engines, and other attributes I’d sooner associate with a circa-2002 Kia (it’s a major insult to Kia to even mention them in the same sentence as the 2017 Scrapyota CRAP-4 I was stuck with for 36 hours, as Kia is superior in *every*way)…
We drove that RAV-4 1200 miles, and we share every bit of your sentiment. A sea of cheap, hard black plastic. It was positively GM 1990s grade. Questionable ergonomics, cheap switch gear. DW the driver seat was broken on the brand new RAV-4. We didn’t realize until my wife tried to drive the yota. The seat when we picked up the car was in a good position for me. My shorter wife couldn’t move the seat forward. It’s just at the front of the seat, lift it up. I am. Let me try. After 20 minutes of yanking, rocking, and near violence the seat wouldn’t budge. The nearest ‘yota dealer to where we were in Death Valley? Las Vegas. Or I could have driven it back to Long Beach for an exchange.
Wheezy engine? Check.
Noisy as hell? Check.
Exhausting to drive with numb on center feel that felt as if GM designed the electric steering (oh wait, they do share the parts). Check
Awful seats with zero lumbar support that leave you feeling sore and broken after a day of driving? Check
I will say this, I brutalized the RAV-4. BRUTALIZED it. There is a long story of almost missing the return flight, dropping off the RAV-4 covered in desert dust and salt of Death Valley, and an empty gas tank. It was so dirty we got nailed a cleaning fee. I took that all the way out to Race Track and back, rock crawled on jeep trails. I will say, it went everywhere I asked.
It also is a poster child on why someone should never, ever buy a rental car. That was hard ass miles on a new anything.
But that is no defense, the RAV-4 is just awful all the way around. The only people I can imagine buying them are spawning salmon that return to the Toyota showroom because…Toyota. The CR-V is vastly better – Hell just about anything else is better.
I’m not a huge fan of Ford due to quality missteps and too many dealership horror stories (with some notable exceptions), but the Ford Escape is so much better than the Turdyota A$$-4 that it’s almost impossible to overstate how much better it is in nearly every way (especially ride quality, NVH, interior material quality, switchgear, gauges, co fort, etc.)
Pssst, RAV-4 Deadweight, RAV-4.
More marketing bs. Who cares about the brand it’s the products you dummies!
Explain that to Jeep.
Their products are mostly well liked.
Yes, poor products liked due to brand image.
Sorry, but this is a total Bullsh– ranking. I bet 85+ people out of 100 around the world heard of all the major car brands and could pretty accurately rank them in terms of sales, prestige, price-class, quality, national origin, and performance. Yet Alibaba, Tencent, and SAP are all higher than any of the car brands? I bet 70%+ of the world population has never heard of any of them, much less what business they are in or how good they are. If most people haven’t heard about your brand it is worthless to them. Then you have brands like Marlboro that are certainly well known, but 80% of the people hate it because they don’t like smoking. If people don’t like your brand it has negative value. My guess is the rankings are influenced by on some under the table money – maybe BMW isn’t coughing up enough to maintain their ranking?
Alibaba is not a consumer product company and thus you can’t compare its brand value with Toyota directly based on population.
More evidence that Ford is doomed. They should just give up now. Best selling brand in the U.S. and Canada? No, that is no indication of health. It would be for a non-American auto brand, but as it stands, its just more evidence that they’re dead in the water.
Just wait until gas prices hit $8/gallon (ANY day now), since they have NO cars whatsoever, they’ll be closing the doors five days later. Doom, gloom, death, failure, these are the only words that apply to Ford.
“Doom, gloom, death, failure, these are the only words that apply to Ford.”
Not true.
There’s also “fanboy”.
On the nose. He’s Ford’s BTSR without the intellect.
I’m amazed that Wal-Mart is ranked that highly.
Maybe it’s a result of all the free publicity and goodwill generated by “People of Walmart”?
Say Nissan just squeezed in at #100… Must be a Mirage…
Wouldn’t feel too bad for BMW.
BMW will be revamping most of lineup in the next few years, including ALL of its crossovers (in addition to adding the X7).