Subaru & Ford top brand-loyalty rankings
Subaru and Ford are on top of two loyalty rankings released by Experian Automotive on Tuesday, while the ranking of individual model loyalty was dominated by luxury vehicles.
According to Experian’s analysis of roughly 6.8 million household repurchases that put pen to paper between October 2014 and September 2015, Subaru and Ford ranked highest, first and second, respectively, in both brand loyalty and manufacturer loyalty.
Looking at individual models, Land Rover’s Range Rover was the model with the most repeat buyers (48.2 percent).
As an overall manufacturer, Toyota ranked third-highest in customer loyalty — but on a brand level, Mercedes-Benz was the third-highest overall in brand loyalty while also ranking first in the luxury brand rankings.
“It’s exciting to see that manufacturers’ efforts to improve owner loyalty are working,” said Brad Smith, director of automotive statistics and consulting at Experian. “Over the last few years, loyalty rates have increased, and these improvements are key to the industry. Understanding rates of consumer loyalty among vehicle brands, makes and models helps to drive better business decisions, such as a dealer selecting inventory and targeting advertising or a manufacturer making adjustments to a vehicle’s design and creating more competitive promotional strategies.”
Here are the top 10 loyalty rankings for each metric, provided by Experian:
Manufacturer | Loyalty Rate (%) |
Subaru | 67.7 |
Ford | 67.5 |
Toyota | 67.3 |
General Motors | 67.2 |
Fiat Chrysler | 65.5 |
Daimler | 64.9 |
Kia | 63.2 |
Honda | 61.3 |
Hyundai | 61.3 |
Nissan | 61.2 |
Brand | Loyalty Rate (%) |
Subaru | 67.7 |
Ford | 66.7 |
Mercedes-Benz | 65.1 |
Toyota | 63.5 |
Kia | 63.2 |
Hyundai | 61.3 |
Nissan | 61.1 |
Chevrolet | 60.7 |
Lexus | 60.7 |
Honda | 59.9 |
Brand | Loyalty Rate (%) |
Mercedes-Benz | 65.1 |
Lexus | 60.7 |
BMW | 57.4 |
Porsche | 57.2 |
Lincoln | 57 |
Audi | 54.7 |
Land Rover | 51.6 |
Cadillac | 49.2 |
Infiniti | 45.7 |
Acura | 43.8 |
Model | Loyalty Rate (%) |
Land Rover Range Rover | 48.2 |
Mercedes-Benz S Class | 46.6 |
Lincoln MKZ | 44.8 |
Mercedes-Benz 2500 Sprinter Van | 44.8 |
Nissan Leaf | 44 |
Ram 1500 | 42.9 |
Lexus RX 350 | 42.7 |
Hyundai Genesis | 42.5 |
Kia Soul | 42 |
Subaru Forester | 41.1 |
Some other interesting facts found by Experian’s study include the following:
- North Dakota is the state with the most brand-loyal customers (67.2 percent), followed by Michigan (66.4 percent) and Iowa (65.8).
- 69 percent of lease customers stayed loyal to their brands during the timeframe of Experian’s study, followed by 56.9 percent of consumers with loans.
- Customers who finances with manufacturer captive finance companies (Ford Credit, Toyota Financial, etc.) were more loyal (63.8 percent purchased same brand again) compared to customers with independent bank loans (58 percent).