Comments on: Polk Customer Loyalty Awards 2007: GM vs. Toyota, Round Two

By: KGrGunMan

KGrGunMan — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:12:56 +0000

owning both a 1991 4×4 toyota pick up and a 2005 toyota tacoma i can say toyota has retained me as a compact truck buyer.

and my ex-girlfriends car was a ion that i drove every now and then so i can give feed back on that car.

i think the head designer of the ion must have owned a ‘91 toyota 4×4 because both the truck and the car handled exactly the same. not only that but the ion’s interior looked like it was made out of the exact same (very tought, but very cheap) hard plastics. they even both had the same amount of rattles, however my truck spent more time off road in the desert then it did on the street, so it lived a much harder life.

the ion was such a bad car that any day of the week i would take a 15+ year old toyota truck over a brand new ion, hands down.

By: Sherman Lin

Sherman Lin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:32:59 +0000

It would be more intuitive and meaningful if they released the figures for every vehicle from top to bottom.

By: Johnson

Johnson — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:44:53 +0000

Strange indeed. These results fly right into the face of other loyalty surveys out there, notably JD Power’s loyalty/customer retention survey. In other surveys including JD Power’s, Toyota is the clear leader when it comes to customer loyalty and customer retention.

I too would like to see a detailed explanation from Polk, as to how they got their results, how many people and what kind of people (demographics) were surveyed, and who the losers were.

By: KixStart

KixStart — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:59:46 +0000

Robert Farago: “Did I mention that we’re phoning Polk?”

Will that be the podcast? Might be a good one.

By: starlightmica (Richard Chen)

starlightmica (Richard Chen) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:52:54 +0000

helius:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E1D7103CF934A35756C0A96F958260
In an embarrassing about-face, Cadillac conceded that it had “overstated” its 1998 sales by some 4,773 cars and trucks. That gave Lincoln the luxury sales title for the first time in 57 years.

By: jaje

jaje — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:50:25 +0000

I feel that fleet customers are considered “loyal” buyers too. Where else would they get small cars $5k

By: helius

helius — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:32:48 +0000

I seem to remember when annual Lincoln sales surpassed Cadillac sales in the late 1990s. Wasn’t there some fudging of numbers done so Cadillac would still come out on top, at least on paper. Something to do with counting/registering vehicles sold in January the next year?

I could be wrong, of course. Anyone have further info?

By: AKM

AKM — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:26:01 +0000

Small Car (Saturn Ion, 23.5 percent)

Is it because the buyers can’t afford anything else? For an extra 5k, you get a well-equipped Mazda3, for chrissakes!

By: B-Rad

B-Rad — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:05:46 +0000

The Saturn Ion? I’ve never driven one. Nor have I even been in one. But I have been under the impression that it sucks. I would have expected the Civic or a Camry to have filled that slot. Please have Polk explain.

By: tulsa_97sr5

tulsa_97sr5 — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:58:03 +0000

the solstice???? are they counting people who wreck there cars and then have insurance buy them another one?

By: starlightmica (Richard Chen)

starlightmica (Richard Chen) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:31:03 +0000

I look forwards to seeing the list of losers, the Zeroes, if Polk will release those names. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a correlation with TTAC’s TWA2K7.

By: Stein X Leikanger

Stein X Leikanger — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:26:19 +0000

One might also query GM’s use of chinese car sales from a manufacturer it doesn’t have a majority stake in, to pad total sales numbers in order to beat Toyota …

GM left Toyota in “the dust” with 3000 more cars sold last year – that is, until it was found that GM had borrowed sales from a Chinese company to make up the difference. Kind of handy when Toyota released its sales figures first.

Automotive News has the sordid tale:
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/ANA02/309714026/1078