65% of Toyota Buyers Buy Another One
We turn to BusinessWeek (BW) for the skinny on J.D. Power and Associates' just-released 2007 Customer Retention Study (you can get the straight dope from J.D.'s press release here). Once again, Toyota tops the chart, followed closely by Lexus (63.0 percent) and Honda (62.8 percent). Three Detroit brands land in the top ten. Chevrolet takes the fifth slot (56.8 percent), Ford comes in seventh (52.9 percent) and Cadillac takes eighth (52.8 percent). Discounting MINI (not on the radar long enough to rank) and Isuzu (who?), Scion, Pontiac and Jaguar have the hardest time keeping customers; re-upping 30.8, 27.8 and 24.5 percent respectively. Although (or perhaps because) Mercedes scooped sixth at 52.6 percent, BW's boffins reckon it's not all about the product. "Marketing analysts say a solid record of quality and reliability combined with clarity and consistency of advertising keeps customers coming back. 'There are still many companies that do not understand that consistency of image over time is as important as making sure the quality is up to snuff and the dealers are doing their jobs properly,' says independent marketing consultant Dennis Keene, who advises companies on long-term brand strategy.
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" ... remember the Eurovan .... " I do indeed. It was on the US market, then off, then back on, then off again. Way overpriced compared to the competition and always underpowered. Nice fit and finish though.
Katie Puckrik, you really ARE trying to stir up trouble these days. You say you think cars should drive themselves. DRIVE THEMSELVES! And then you talk elsewhere about how you enjoy doing the repairs on an old Neon. And now... Well, to tell you the truth, you're not really taking the fun out of this thread, even if you do think premium group Fords are da bomb. But I'm having a lot of trouble getting my mind around the notion of someone whose posts are almost universally interesting and provocative, and who likes to repair cars, but thinks cars should drive themselves. Usually it's the other way around, or people like both. Did you eat some hagis (pls forgive any spelling error) that disagreed with you? Or have the traffic and/or the speed cameras become intolerable in UK? Or are you just messing with us? Forgive me, but my curiosity has definitely gotten the better of me.