COSTA MESA, Calif. -
A pair of domestic brands enjoyed their second straight year commanding the top two spots for consumer research traffic on NADAguides.com in 2010, and the overall top 10 list didn’t change too much from a year ago. However, it appears the gap between brands has tightened up, according to the site’s president and chief executive officer.
NADAguides’ 2010 Brand Share Report was released Tuesday, and topping the list as the brand generating the heaviest consumer research from January 2010 through November was Chevrolet.
Ford was second and Toyota was third.
Chevrolet and Ford also took the top two spots a year ago.
“Although the overall top 10 brands have remained relatively consistent compared to 2009, our analysts detect a decrease in margin — showing that competition is getting tighter between brands,” NADAguides president and CEO Don Christy Jr. said.
“As the competitive edge between brands diminishes, consumer brand loyalty will become increasingly important,” he added.
Looking at the list in more detail, Toyota made a significant jump in 2010 as its site traffic climbed almost 32 percent from the prior year. As a result, the brand moved from No. 5 on the list to No. 3.
Jeep enjoyed the most significant gain (62 percent) in research traffic and made the top 10 for the first time, coming in at No. 7. The upswing for Jeep was due to “new and greatly improved products coming from Detroit and the heavy marketing push from Jeep,” according to analysts with NADAguides.
Research traffic also moved upward for Dodge. The seven remaining brands on the list showed modest declines in brand interest share, officials noted.
Beyond the aforementioned automakers, other brands that made the list included Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, GMC and Volkswagen.
Explaining the slight dips for certain brands, officials said Honda saw a decrease with shoppers gravitating toward Toyota, which also “began to overcome negative quality perceptions,” officials noted.
As far as the top three (Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota) brands, NADAguides found that their high rankings were helped by a strong interest in trucks.  
“Contributing to the consideration rankings of Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota are the continued interest in top truck brands followed by those brands producing quality small SUVs, such as Honda’s CR-V,” analysts shared.
“The everlasting interest in muscle also fueled the top brand share rankings with the Ford Mustang, the Chevrolet Camaro and the Dodge Challenger,” they added.