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Ford Motor Company passes General Motors and Toyota to take top spot in corporate loyalty


ford taurus (select to view enlarged photo)
2013 Ford Taurus

Ford also dominated in overall Brand Loyalty and had a record eight models in top 10

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SCHAUMBURG, IL--March 26, 2013:  Experian Automotive today announced that in Q4 2012, Ford Motor Company took the top spot in corporate loyalty for the first time since Q4 2011. During the Q4 2012, time period, 47.9 percent of the customers who own a Ford Motor Company vehicle returned to market to buy another Ford or Lincoln vehicle. General Motors had the second highest corporate loyalty ranking at 47.7 percent, followed by Toyota Motor Corporation at 46.9 percent.

"Customer loyalty will always be a very important barometer of automotive sales success," said Jeffrey Anderson, director of consulting and analytics for Experian Automotive. "Ford has developed extremely loyal customers across a wide range of vehicles. That consistency across its product line has helped vault Ford's loyalty rankings past its rivals in our latest study."

Ford also dominated loyalty at the brand level, coming in with 47.1 percent of Ford owners returning to the market to purchase another Ford vehicle. Mercedes Benz was second with 43.7 percent, which is a significant increase over the previous quarter when they came in ninth place with 34.6 percent.

At the model level, Ford had a record eight of the top 10 vehicles listed. The Ford Fusion topped the list with 60 percent of Fusion owners returning to market to purchase another Ford vehicle. Other Ford vehicles in the top 10 included Flex, Edge, Five Hundred, Fiesta, Escape, Focus and Taurus. The only non-Ford vehicles in the top 10 were the Kia Forte and the Chevrolet Sonic.

Corporate loyalty:

Corporation

Percent

Ford Motor Company

47.9

General Motors

47.7

Toyota Motor Corporation

46.9

Mercedes-Benz

43.4

Honda Motor Company

41.8

Kia Motors

40.0

Hyundai Motors

38.9

Subaru of America

38.9

Chrysler Group

38.1

BMW Group

37.0


Brand loyalty:

Brand

Percent

Ford

47.1

Mercedes-Benz

43.7

Toyota

42.9

Honda

40.4

Chevrolet

40.0

Kia

40.0

Hyundai

38.9

Subaru

38.9

BMW

37.5

Lexus

36.7


Brand loyalty by model:

Model

Percent

Ford Fusion

60.0

Ford Flex

58.0

Ford Edge

57.1

Kia Forte

55.6

Ford Five Hundred

53.3

Ford Fiesta

53.2

Ford Escape

52.8

Chevrolet Sonic

52.4

Ford Focus

52.1

Ford Taurus

49.3


In other report findings:

  • The average length of vehicle ownership fell from 68.1 months in 2011 to 66.2 months in 2012.
  • During Q4 2012, the hybrid vehicle segment accounted for 1.03 percent of all vehicles in operation (VIO). It was the first time in history that hybrids topped 1 percent of VIO.
  • Import share of vehicles in operation reached a record high 41 percent during Q4 2012.
  • Cadillac had the highest jump in brand loyalty, jumping nearly 5 percentage points from 25 percent to 30 percent during Q4 2012.
  • Luxury brands accounted for five of the top 10 gainers in brand loyalty.

Complete findings from the Q4 2012 Experian Automotive industry Loyalty and Market Trend report will be presented in a Webinar on March 27, 2013, at 11 a.m. Pacific /1 p.m. Central/2 p.m. Eastern.