New Vehicle Purchasers Stick With Favored Brands
A J.D. Power brand loyalty study finds most car buyers return to the same brand when trading in their used vehicles.
A J.D. Power brand loyalty study finds most car buyers return to the same brand when trading in their used vehicles.
IMAGE: JD Power
New vehicle purchasers are sticking to their brand loyalty, finds a new J.D. Power study.
The analytics firm scored company loyalty—the percentage of new car buyers who return to the same brand when trading in their current vehicle—from September 2021 through August 2022.
J.D. Power also broke its loyalty study into five segment categories—premium car, premium SUV, mass market car, mass market SUV and truck—for the first time. Its results showed foreign brands had the highest brand loyalty within these segments.
Toyota ranked first in mass market car and SUV brands, with a 62.2% and 63.6% return rate, respectively. Subaru finished second in the SUV segment, and 62.6% while Kia came in second in the mass market car segment, at 54.1%.
Among premium car brands, Porsche took the top spot at 57.4% brand loyalty for premium cars, while BMW took the premium spot for SUVs at 58.6%.
Ford is the only domestic automaker to take a segment. The automaker posted the highest loyalty among truck brands at 63.8%.
Loyalty overall also saw an uptick, with Toyota seeing a 1.1% increase from its mass market rating in 2021 for the mass market car segment. Its SUV segment jumped 2.5 percentage points, from 2021's mass market average.
Subaru loyalty is also rising. In the SUV segment, the brand's rate rose by 0.8 percentage points.
Premium brands saw the biggest climb on average. Porsche brand loyalty saw a 7.2 percentage point uptick, while BMW saw an even 13 percentage point increase.
Ford jumped 9.9 percentage points from its previous rating.
J.D. Power attributed many of these upticks to the new-vehicle shortage.
"Tight supply chain and lower-than-normal production could have disrupted loyalty, but the highest-ranking brands excelled by staying focused on keeping owners in the brand," Tyson Jominy, vice president of data & analytics at J.D. Power, said in the statement.
Jominy reported the shortage is just one of many disruptions on the horizon. Electric vehicles may disrupt brand loyalty in the future.
"There is an element of risk to brand loyalty that could erode for those sitting on the sidelines or not moving quickly enough," Jominy said.
Originally posted on Auto Dealer Today
More Showroom
California Sees Quarterly Gains
California’s new-vehicle market saw a boost in hybrids in the third quarter and its first overall quarterly market gain of the year.
Read More →
New-Vehicle Prices Stay Put
Affordability pressures and model availability shaped new-vehicle sales in September, according to an analysis by Kelley Blue Book.
Read More →
EV Buyer Consideration Shifts
What drives American consumers to purchase an electric vehicle is shifting as the question moves away from Should I?' to 'Which features and experience do I want to have?'
Read More →
Year-to-Date Auto Sales Holding Their Own
A forecast through August shows that automakers have shifted strategies to keep deliveries and revenues up despite tariffs and other economic challenges.
Read More →
Slow to Robo
Ten years of polling consumers shows autonomous vehicles’ profiles have risen considerably, but even more people now want at least some level of control if they go that route.
Read More →
Dealers a Little Down
A third-quarter Cox Automotive survey finds them in a mixed mood, bummed by fallen customer traffic but encouraged by better profits, costs and EV interest.
Read More →
European EV Sales Skyrocket
The EV market on the continent held strong in July with almost 25% of new-car sales being fully electric units, a stark contrast to the U.S., where EV sales declined about 42%.
Read More →
Mitsubishi Unveils U.S. Plan
The automaker announced a strategy that includes an expanded lineup and dealership presence, along with more ‘rugged’ and electric models.
Read More →
Used Lots Getting the Business
Many consumers are seeking out the units to save money, and the demand – higher in July than normal – is keeping supply limited and prices up.
Read More →
Used Market Stabilizes
The Carfax Used Car Index noted a major drop in used-vehicle price increases in July after several months of hikes.
Read More →