Consumer Reports Car Brand Perception Survey winners: Toyota, Honda
So we know many of you will roll your eyes at this and let the charges fly, but the results of Consumer Reports' 2008 Car Brand Perception survey reveal that Toyota and Honda are "best by a wide margin." The rankings, based on responses from 1,720 adults whose households own at least one car, ranked the amount of times a particular brand was mentioned in any one of seven categories (listed in order of importance to consumers): safety, quality, value, performance, environmental friendliness, design, and technical innovation.Toyota rang up 189 points, with Honda following at 146. The next three vote-getters were domestics: Ford with 112, Chevrolet with 110, and GMC with 102. Mitsubishi (21), Audi (14), and Acura (8) brought up the rear. The only category in which Toyota and Honda didn't make the top five was design/styling. That's not really a surprise, and the tie for the win in that category is: Mercedes and Lexus.
Of note is that the results of this survey don't exactly match the results of other surveys. Volvo, of course, leads the safety category, but Subaru was voted more safe than both Mercedes and BMW, and the latter two didn't even make the top five. Mercedes did make the quality category top five, even though it came third from last in CR's rankings for predicted reliability that measures quality over time. We can't speak to accuracy of CR's polling methodology, but the results seem to give us less information about the brands than they do about conflicting perceptions of the buying public.
[Source: Reuters via eGM Car Tech]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
mikedman_ak 5:03PM (1/29/2008)
Perhaps that is why it is called a "Car Brand Perception Survey"... I think the point is to gauge how well car companies are connecting with consumers, not determine which is safest, fastest, coolest, etc...
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geo.stewart 5:03PM (1/29/2008)
nothing new here. as stated, this was about perception and Honda and Toyota have both been masters at that.
what is interesting is that Acura scored so low when Honda was so high.
Of course that shows the ignorance of the buying public, and I'll caveat that as a statistical statement rather than any indictment on specific individuals. Consider the perceived here with JD Powers actual numbers and that is my ratioanlization for the statement.
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voodoobru 5:15PM (1/29/2008)
you have to agree with acura. there is nothing innovative there. i hope someone at acura is seeing this because they need to get their arse in gear.
and about honda and toyota are masters of perception implying that they don't innovate is ridiculous. honda and toyota were the first to the U.S. market with hybrids, honda has had natural gas vehicles on the road, and has been running the forefather to the fcx fuel cell vehicle in california fleets for some years now. outside of gm's electric ev, there hasn't been much innovation by others.
Whitie 7:06PM (1/29/2008)
I sat in every Toyota and Honda at the NAIAS (at least the ones that were open), and have to agree they are masters of perception.
CR is the best thing to ever happen to Toyota and Honda.
Red Star 5:05PM (1/29/2008)
Consumer Reports ... 'nuff said.
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blogged to death 9:23PM (1/29/2008)
Hey Red Star - in your avatar - at least they circled the problem.
remy 5:05PM (1/29/2008)
You gotta own toyota and honda's reputation from their entire 90s and later models, they are the most reliable car out there, and when a car is reliable, most people will be happy with it. They are the best used car by far (being that when you shop for a used car you want something solid as theres no warrenty).
People will say it might be true, it might be false, that some other automakers make better machines, might be true, but a reputation takes more than 3-4 years to built, and most people can't afford brand new cars.
Toyota and Honda earned their reputation.
my 2 cents.
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Joe 5:20PM (1/29/2008)
I bought a new Toyota in 2003 and it turned out to be one of the worse car I've ever own and I've own many. I got rid of it when the dealer could not fixed one of the problem. What sounded like a bad bearing could not be found. Wheel bearings were replaced but it still had the same problem. I suspect it was a transmission bearing. Got rid of it when it reached 28000 miles. Never again will I buy a Toyota. I'm now driving a G6 Pontiac and so far have not had any problem.
Greg 5:31PM (1/29/2008)
Gee. Anecdotal evidence about one car that didn't work well, expanded to condemn the entire manufacturer. Convincing.
In any case I can't see how anyone would be surprised. Consumer Reports has, until this year, given Very Good ratings to most of the cars made by those two manufacturers. When you interview CR readers about what cars they think are the best the results are going to reflect what they've read, which in this case is CR. The perception report would likely have much different results if you interviewed Car and Driver or Motor Trend readers.
Mallory 7:04PM (1/29/2008)
You're spot on Greg. If a CR subscriber reads in every issue how great a Camry is, when they buy one and the panels don't fit and it's always in the shop, they just think "wow, good thing it's at least a Toyota. Just think how bad it would it be if I bought American." Either that or "I just got one of the oddball lemons." If the same subscriber buys an American car and the panels don't fit and it's always in the shop, they think "See, I knew I should have bought a Toyota. American cars suck." That's what perception is, and that's why people still think a 2008 Toyota is the same well made car it was 20 years ago. If your car buying research begins and ends with Consumer Reports then you'll always be 10 years behind the curve.
Joe 9:23AM (1/31/2008)
I've driven American cars all my life and I've had quite a few. In 2003 I bought a brand new Toyota to find out what the hype was all about. Well, I drove this Toyota for less than two years because I hated it. It had a major problem with bearings. The dealer never replaced the bearing or bearings at fault. The wheels bearings were replaced and but that didn't fix the problem. The high revving engine and hard starting was another pet peeve of mine. The horn they put on Toyotas is a joke. My motorcycles had a bigger and louder horns. I even removed it an put an American car horn.To tell the truth I could not find anything better on this car than a good American car. As you probably know by now, I now driving and American can again.
macdoc 5:16PM (1/29/2008)
People are Sheep!!
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Playdrv4me 5:18PM (1/29/2008)
Sheeple
tbss_in_the_D 5:24PM (1/29/2008)
Lemings
jmstro04 5:25PM (1/29/2008)
I think the point of the article was to look at people's perceptions...
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Seoultrain 5:25PM (1/29/2008)
wow, toyota is even 4th in perception of performance. just wow.
And people wonder why Bush got voted twice...
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vanhoveln 5:38PM (1/29/2008)
I have taken these 'surveys' - They are totally unscientific and completely based on your first few answers.
They ask you a couple of open-ended questions about car manufactures and then use the list you created as the basis for the remaining 20-30 questions.
For Example: They ask - When I say Car Manufactures, which ones come to mind?
If my answer is Toyota, Honda, BMW, and GMC.
They set this as their list - so now they say to rank car manufacturers on perceived safety, Toyota, Honda, BMW, and GMC?
It is hard to then say well....I think Subaru is the safest, especially if the question was to rank a list.
If most people (as I believe is true) don't know that much about cars they will seed their list with the best known manufacturers - which is why Toyota (about 20 models), Honda (several top selling models), Ford, Chevy etc. are at the top while smaller brands (OF THE SAME COMPANY!!!) scored much worse i.e Buick, Acura etc.
The same Consumer Reports will tell you quality rankings go something like Lexus, Buick, Acura, Honda, Toyota etc. Those are a bit more acurate.
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bduddy 11:00PM (1/29/2008)
Consumer Reports isn't THAT bad-they use mail-in surveys. Which has its own profound affect on the results, but that's another thing entirely...
Seoultrain 5:46PM (1/29/2008)
I wonder how many people went down the list and wrote "Toyota, Toyota, Toyota, Toyota...."
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voodoobru 5:48PM (1/29/2008)
wow, people are really taking to heart the scientific issues with a subjective "perception" survey. talk about not reading the directions.
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