Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet top customer retention survey
According to the J.D. Power and Associates
2005 customer retention survey, Lexus leads
the industry in new vehicle buyers/lessees who replace their car with a vehicle from the same company.
Lexus retains 63 percent of its new-car customers, compared to an industry-average 49.6 percent.
Following Lexus on the list were Toyota (62.6 percent), Honda (59.9 percent), Chevrolet (57.3 percent) and Hyundai
(56.3 percent).
If you're curious about trends, in 2003
Chevrolet led the survey with 60.8 percent, followed by Toyota (59.3%), Mercedes-Benz (58.7%), Ford (58.1%) and Honda
(57.1%).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2Suave 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
No surprise that Toyota and Honda are high on the list. Also, Chevy has a loyal following and its trucks and SUVs have been well received, too.
What really surprises me is how low Mazda is because Mazdas are excellent cars with generally good service records. Even VW with all its well-publicized troubles has a more loyal following than Mazda and that's a shock.
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Realist 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
I wonder how many percentage points GM lost between years 2003 and 2004.
With the employee discount offers they were giving away this year, this probably helped boost their numbers up for this year which explains only a few percentage points difference between 2003 and now.
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Source1 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
No mention of Hyundai in the next slot with 56%. Pretty good considering this was a horrible number just 5 years ago.
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Geotpf 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Well, clearly the Reliable Two (as I have heard Honda and Toyota referred to) are strong here. One thing I don't like about this is that it seems to be focused on nameplates and not companies. That is somebody who moved up from a Toyota to a Lexus (or a Chevy to a Cadillac-or sidestepping from Chevy to Pontaic or Saturn) wouldn't be counted as being loyal. It should be by company, not nameplate, IMHO, or by nameplate, but counting all nameplates within the same brand as being loyal.
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toyota h8r 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
So, all you GM, America haters. I suppose Chevy's high loyalty ranking has to do with GM employees, fleet buyers, and blind patriots being the only ones buying them.
VW loyalty is not surprising. They have always had a loyal cult following despite years of quality image problems.
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james ken 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
#1, well, vw fans are idiots.
sorry to be inflamatory but i see it demonstrated time and time again.
how's that go again? fool me into buying your golf, shame on you, fool me into buying your phaeton ... ?
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Carlos 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Well, Chevy's high loyalty ranking has to do with GM employees, fleet buyers, and blind patriots being the only ones buying them.
Ok, I'm kidding. I expect that a lot of them are truck buyers - they're less likely to move up to a luxury brand even when they can. And Chevy's great for value too (Hyundai's up there for that reason). Having such a full line of vehicles helps too, as it does for Toyota.
That's Mazda's problem. They're practically a sports car maker, which a lot of people outgrow. They either need something more practical or they can afford a luxury sports sedan or something. I think it isn't a knock on their cars.
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JGN 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
In the last few years, I went from a Tacoma, to an Acura Legend, to an Infiniti G20t, and then back to a Tacoma.
The Legend was aging, but just a great looking car. Vastly underpowered by todays standards though. The RL is a great car, but still does not look as good as a 1994 Legend.
The Infiniti was nice, but underpowered.
Tacomas are bulletproof. By far the best truck I have ever owned, twice.
Then there are the new ones. I'll give them a couple of years to work out the new model kinks out though.
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james ken 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
i STILL believe killing the legend was a mistake
what a great car; what a great name to keep alive
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Tankstelle 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Hyundai really surprises me. Just remember that retention + conquest = total sales. At the end of the day, the final number is all that matters. Assuming that you can't have both, would you rather be Chevy with high retention and low conquest, or Infiniti with low retention and high conquest?
To respond to the Mazda's and Infiniti's of the world, these are brands that have repositioned themselves and therefore their previous buyer would not necessarily be interested in a current offering. All of the folks at the top with the exception of maybe Caddy have had very consistent positioning.
Just saying that retention is extremely important, but only if you consider it in the proper context.
Another thing is that this is survey is probably a better indication of reliability than the reliability survey.
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330R 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
#9, I agree completely. Legend was a great name. I really prefer having the names Integra, Vigor and Legend instead of RSX, TL and RL.
Supposedly there was a study conducted on name recognition, and Legend was more (or too closely) recognizable than the Acura brand itself, hence no more Legend name in the States.
Of course, it never disappeared in Japan...
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JGN 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
#9 and #11.
Do you think that Honda made a misstep there?
If the name Legend was so successful, which must have been at least partially attributable to the car itself, why would they kill it?
Why would you kill the name that brought recognition to the company that produced it. It's not like anyone who knew anything about the Legend didn't know that it was an Acura, or that Acura is not made by Honda.
In some ways, the Japanese underestimate the intelligence of the American market. A good company offers a good product, whether or not they choose to differentiate the differing levels in quality and price by assigning different names.
Who doesn't know that an Acura is made by Honda?
Who thinks that an Acura would perform poorly in its category because its parent company is Honda. How more than hold their own in the category they choose to compete in using Honda.
Okay, so maybe the don't see the need to differentiate the difference in quality by changing the name of a product that comes from the same company, I can see that. Cadillacs and Corvettes are a GM product.
The Legend moniker is a likable one, as has the Legend been. Except maybe during the boring period when the RL was first introduced. Terrible styling.
I can't understand why they gave up the name or the design of the second generation Legends.
The '95 Legend Sedan, and especially the Coupe, are great looking cars with a great name. The performance and reliability was not too shabby either.
Come on Honda, bring it back. You were doing so well with the Legend.
Did Apple give up the iPod because it started to outperform "Apple" as a brand name? Hell no, it brought attention to who makes the iPod, Apple!
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james ken 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
i never thought it had to do with recognition of "legend" vs "honda" or "acura", i always thought it was about trying to change their image by picking a naming scheme more like BMW or M-benz
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nemo 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
The Acura RL's JDM name is the Honda Legend. Honda just decided to give it a more upscale name ala the same way Toyota and Nissan do with their Infiniti and Lexus brands'.
If you dont believe me, take a look at this website from Honda's Legend website at http://www.honda.co.jp/LEGEND/.
It's also interesting to note that our Accord is called the Honda Inspire and our TSX and TL are called the Accord and Accord Euro-R respectively.
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tariq 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
i read in a magazine about a poll conducted in uk. it showed tht skoda owners are the most loyal with 97% of them buying a skoda again
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Paul Pro Grade 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Doesn't surprise me that Chevrolet is near the top of the list in consumer retention. Chevys aren't overpriced and underperforming as Toyotas. Don't forget that Toyota recalled more cars this year than they sold! Shameful.
Those same cult fools from VW are moving to Toyota.....
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Paul Pro Grade 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Let me know when Tie-oh-tee will build a real Professional Grade "truck" and not some wimpy, lightweight, and underpowered wannabe. Toyota is just fooling themselves about overtaking GM in sales. No Jap company builds an entire line of vehicles. Where is the Jap version of the Corvette? Where is the Jap HD truck? Where are the Jap truck diesels? You can't build a truck off a modified mini-van chassis....unless you want to die pulling something big!
Japs make rather nice cars period. They still have a lot of catching up to do.......
The Japs biggest competition in the future will be from China.
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