SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. earned top honors for the third consecutive year during the 17th annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards, which were presented Wednesday evening at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. 

Ford was honored with awards for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer and Overall Loyalty to Make. The Ford F-Series also won in the Mid-/Full-size Pickup category for the 15th time. Ford also topped the list on Experian Automotive’s honors for brand loyalty, results of which were released last week.

A Polk analysis attributes Ford’s owner loyalty success this year to its shorter product refresh cycles, a customer-focused lease end process and the company’s competitive product lineup across most vehicle segments.

“We are honored that our customers continue to choose Ford and Lincoln products,” said Ken Czubay, vice president of marketing, sales and service at Ford Motor Co. “Each day, we and our dealers strive to earn their loyalty by providing exceptional sales experiences and a great consumer value proposition driven by high fuel economy, smart technology and safety.”

Additional highlights included Volkswagen being honored for the first time in the Most Improved Loyalty to Make category. This win is based largely on VW’s emphasis on customer engagement spanning the length of ownership, as well as the carmaker’s aggressive vehicle pricing strategy in the U.S. market. Honda was honored in the Compact Car segment for the Civic, a first time winner in the category. The Japanese automaker also won the Compact SUV category with its CR-V.  

 “As manufacturers work to retain customers in this incredibly competitive market, we’re seeing increased activity surrounding customer engagement, which is beginning to resonate with consumers,” said Brad Smith, director of Polk’s Loyalty Management Practice. “Our automotive OEM and agency customers are developing new loyalty programs within their organizations, and as a result we’re seeing increases in repurchase loyalty.”

Ford was a repeat winner in the African-American Market Loyalty to Make category, which the carmaker has swept since 2010.  Honda and Toyota rounded out the ethnic loyalty honors with respective wins in the Hispanic Market Loyalty to Make and Asian Market Loyalty to Make categories. 

With ethnic buyers representing 19 percent of all owners returning to buy again in 2012, according to Polk’s analysis, the manufacturers that succeed in building loyalty among this audience will strengthen brand position as the number of multi-cultural consumers continue to increase their buying power and influence in the automotive marketplace.

*Winner from previous model year award