Postpandemic Consumers Less Loyal

Auto brand loyalty has slipped this year as vehicle supply has started to return toward prepandemic levels, J.D. Power says.

Its latest brand-loyalty report shows consumers have been more likely to depart from brands they’d stuck with in the past to choose from among the wider array of options newly available with renewed inventories.

One reason is that people had to keep their vehicles longer due to the scarcity of   new units and therefore experienced more problems with them over time, J.D. Power says in the fifth annual report.

The report is based on purchases made from September 2022 through August of this year at franchised new-vehicle dealers across all traded-in model years. Loyalty is calculated based on the percentage of consumers who buy the same brand that they traded in or bought last.

The highest ranking brands on customer loyalty are:

• Porsche in the premium car category for the second year in a row, with a 57% loyalty rate
• Volvo among premium sports-utility vehicles, at 57%
• Toyota in mass-market cars for the second year running, with a 60% rate
• Subaru in mass-market SUVs, with 61%
• Ford among trucks for the second year, with 65% loyalty, the highest rate among studied brands

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Originally posted on Auto Dealer Today