You Meet The Most Loyal People In A Honda (Showroom)

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

The 2010 JD Power owner loyalty ratings are out. The no-surprises? Honda, Toyota, Lexus, of course. The happy surprise? Ford is now tied with Honda for the loyalty crown, and the Hyundai/Kia axis now sits firmly in the top half.

On the other hand, if you’re a Saab dealer, Jaguar salesman, or if your daddy was unlucky enough to take the Nissan/Infiniti axis instead of the ToyLexus one…

I’d like to hear your theories about why certain manufacturers placed where they did, and I’m sure you will oblige me, but I can’t help but have a few theories of my own:

  • I can’t help but think that VW is sitting in the bottom half of the rankings solely due to their utterly loathsome dealer service. By and large, they now make pretty decent vehicles and their owner body tends to have a cultural/emotional attachment to the brand.
  • Why is Scion retention so low? The naysayers will point at the crummy new xB, but perhaps it’s just that the Scionsters are returning to the dealership and leaving with Camrys.
  • How is it that OMG FAIL LOLZ BAYLEEN FACE WHAILZ Lincoln is doing a slightly better job of customer retention than whiz-bang supercharged Cadillac, even though Cadillac still has the DTS to pull in the AARP repeaters?
  • Shouldn’t Lexus, with its gold-toned customer service and its faux-upscale social image, be doing a better job at this than the local Toyota dealer, home of the sullen serviceman and the denied warranty claim?
  • Mercury is beating Buick, even though Buick is the revitalized face of General Motors and Mercury has been officially killed stone dead. And they are both beating Chrysler. Hmm.

As for the Saab four-percent figure, I’d like to think that is all people who crashed their ’78 Saab Turbos, sustained significant head injuries, and wandered out of the local shop with a 9-7x Aero, but I could be wrong…

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

More by Jack Baruth

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 79 comments
  • Telegraph Road Telegraph Road on Dec 11, 2010

    Please do a plot of brand loyalty vs brand market share. It would be more enlightening.

  • Steven Lang Steven Lang on Dec 11, 2010

    Scion's loyalty weakness is that they only offer a few vehicles in a very narrow price range.

    It's the embodiment of a niche brand. It would have been nice if Scion had been given some of the sportier and more off the cuff models that Toyota/Lexus has released as of late. Even more so than the bloatiness of their models, the lack of 'new buzz' has really hurt that brand.

    Possible add-in's to the Scion brand...

    CT200

    FJCruiser

    A nee-Kei car with a turbo.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
Next