Crazy Bimmer

lol i realized how dumb that sounded so i had it deleted, damn you!

Malibu
Colbalt
Focus

http://www.motorauthority.com/study-...ign-makes.html

They all sell pretty well.

Crazy Bimmer

Malibu: Year to date, Malibu total sales have now exceeded 160,000 cars. http://www.motorauthority.com/study-...ign-makes.html

Cobalt: Sold 6,319 in November and thats WITH a 50% drop in sales. Which the whole auto industry is experiencing so i would say its due to the product.

Focus: Sold 8,194in November 08.

Of course Corolla recorded sales of 21,807 units in November.

dom

I wasn't thinking Malibu, I consider that a mid size.

I think we both know the Cobalt is a POS and the focus while better still isn't up to Mazda 3, Corolla and Civic standards. Why are we all asking for the European Focus? Lets not even discuss the Chrysler offerings. The Civic and Corolla regularly sell 25-30K units a months. You're numbers suggest the Cobalt sells 12K and Focus 16.......See the problem?

I'm not anti American by any stretch either. Which I why I hope the new Cruze is nice and am looking forward to the Fiesta and new Focus.

JeffS

And I wouldn't expect it to go up with the new models either.

Moog-Type-S

Fibonacci

They only sell them in teh Eurozone. The answer for stateside competitiveness is to ditch the antiquated CAFE standards and simply pile on the gas tax -- then we'll have cool small cars.

Whenever in Canada, I've always admired the Mercedes B class cars.

neuronbob

Nor I. I've bought three but my RL is likely to be my last. The new Acuras, other than the new TSX, are simply not appealing. I was going to try Cadillac as I love the CTS' design but since GM's in the dumper, my options are:

a) buy a V6 Accord (second most likely)
b) go Euro, most likely BMW (less likely)
c) keep the RL until the wheels fall off (most likely)

Won't buy a Lexus as they are simply too boring to drive. Yuck!

YeuEmMaiMai

I am suprised that Ford is as high as it is on the list........Although I do like the new Taurus....sweet ride if you ask me.....

Costco

I think a good part of it has to do with model familiarity also. The mainstays of a brand. A lot of people who own Civics, Camrys, Accords, Corollas, etc. have had them in the past, ran them into the ground, and subsequently bought another. Same goes for Ford/Chevy with their light trucks. Who in the hell would buy a Focus after having 3 different generations of Civics? And who in the hell would get a Ridgeline after owning 4 generations of F-series trucks? As for Mini...... at the moment they only have 2 different models really (which are pretty damn similar) with one model being offered in another configuration (vert) so its kinda obvious why their customer retention is so poor, compared to say, Ford, which literally makes everything from the Focus to the Excursion.

Sadly, loyalty is blind sometimes. I'll buy a car if I'm really interested in it, I like it and it appears to be solid/reliable.... could care less if its a Hyundai, a Chrysler, a Volvo or a Cadillac. My sister on the other hand would never get a Cadillac, aside from maybe an Escalade as to avoid the geriatric stigma. As for me..... I don't think anybody would mistake an 09 CTS-V as a geriatric mobile.

TSX69

Ford & Honda Walk Away w/ Top Spot for Customer Retention in 2010

New-vehicle owners are increasingly citing fun-to-drive vehicles as a top reason to remain loyal to their brand, while shifting away from expected resale value as a loyalty reason, according to the J. D. Power and Associates 2010 Customer Retention StudySM released today.

Now in its 8th year, the study measures the rate at which automotive brands retain their existing customers and the reasons why owners remain loyal. Customer retention is critical to a brand’s market success, particularly during the current period of slow recovery, in which each new-vehicle sale is vital.

The study finds that the importance of fun-to-drive vehicles as a reason for owner loyalty has increased by eight percentage points in 2010, compared with 2009. Meanwhile, the importance of resale value as a reason to stay loyal has decreased by 10 percentage points from 2009.

In addition to customer retention, the study also examines rates at which automotive brands capture customers from their competitors, known as conquesting. The importance of a fun-to-drive vehicle has also increased as a reason why brands conquest new customers from their competitors, as has vehicle styling.

“Now that economic and market conditions have improved somewhat, vehicle owners are increasingly citing emotional, rather than practical, reasons for staying with their vehicle brand or switching to a different one,” said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive product research at J.D. Power and Associates. “In light of this, developing new models with attractive styling and that are perceived as fun to drive is increasingly critical for automakers in order to retain and conquest customers as the market continues to recover.”

Ford and Honda rank highest in a tie among automotive brands in retaining vehicle owners. Each brand retains 62% of owners. Ford’s retention rate is primarily driven by the Edge, F-Series and Fusion models, while for Honda, retention is driven by the Accord, CR-V and Pilot. Comparing the 2 brands, Ford owners are more likely than are Honda owners to indicate they have remained with their brand due to the perception that their new vehicle is fun to drive or has good styling. Honda owners are more likely than Ford owners to cite resale value and safety as reasons for repurchasing the brand.

Following Ford and Honda in the rankings are Hyundai, Lexus and Toyota, in a 3-way tie, each with a customer retention rate of 60%. Kia posts the greatest improvement in customer retention rate from 2009, improving by 21 percentage points to 58% in 2010.

Overall customer retention has remained stable from 2009 at 48%. In 2010, 16 of the 34 ranked brands have improved their customer retention rates from 2009, while 14 have declined and four have remained flat.

The study finds that customer retention among domestic brands, as a whole, has improved slightly from 2009. In 2010, 69% of owners who traded in a vehicle from a domestic brand purchased another domestic vehicle, compared with 68% in 2009. However, retention rates among domestic brands continue to lag behind those of import brands. In 2010, 90% of owners who traded in a vehicle from an import brand purchased another import vehicle—a level that has remained consistently high during recent years.

Compared with their retention rates, domestic brands have made more substantial progress during the past 2 years in conquesting customers from import brands. In 2010, 14% of buyers of domestic brand vehicles previously owned an import, up from 10 percent in 2008.

“While import brands still have notably higher customer conquest rates than domestic brands, the gap is beginning to narrow,” said Festekjian. “In recent years, domestic brands have achieved parity or even surpassed the performance of import brands in initial quality and new-vehicle appeal, and customer perceptions of these nameplates seem to be evolving accordingly. It will be interesting to see how the performance gains by domestic brands affect retention and conquest rates in the coming years.”

The 2010 Customer Retention Study is based on responses from 123,601 new-vehicle buyers and lessees, of which 81,350 replaced a vehicle that was previously acquired new. The study was fielded between February and May and August and October 2010.

biker

Hmm.. I wonder the rate is for Acura?

TSX69

Colin

Well since sales are down 40%+ from the highs of 2006, I think it's likely that Acura is not adding enough new customers or attracting new ones to replace those that leave. The question is how bad is it really? The entire industry is down so some of that must be taken into account. I've had a large number of people buy their leases this year vs. leasing a new one. That said, Acura has been heavily inventivizing re-lease customers so they must view it as a soft spot.

Edit: Looky there, TSX69 posted the numbers. I was close, at 40%

smarty666

I can't believe Nissan is as high as it is. There customer service is so piss poor its not even funny. It's because of that I seriously doubt I'll go back the next time around.

I'm surprised about Infiniti and BMW though. I would expect them to be at the highest end of the list.

biker

Some of the low numbers like Mini are understandable - their models only work for some people in certain portions of their life.

I hope for their long term viability Chryco numbers go up.

YEH

Kia's customer rentention higher than Acura's? - that's impossible.

Costco

Mini.

They also only have a couple of body styles basically, and even then the Cooper and Clubman are quite similar. Most of the time, when people shop for a new car they don't want just the newer model of that car, they want to try something different.

Chrysler hasn't really had any significant updates or at least in my mind don't have many cars that can just win people over. I think they had a dead spot in their lineup where no new cars were introduced or even planned - probably in the middle of the Fiat transition. Some of Chrysler's new models look promising.

Yeah, import cars are still tin cans and it's all about 4-barrel carburetors

Sarlacc

Chryslers been in a shit spot for a long time with only a few shining stars....they are finally starting to dig themselves out their hole with a whole slew of new models over the next year.

I hope people start to take notice and I hope chryslers brings their A game...from what I have seen in person in the last few months, I believe they are.