Second Half of Year Gets off to Strong Start for Auto Industry

LOS ANGELES--August 17, 2013: The auto industry has gotten off to a strong start for the second half of 2013, with a 14 percent sales increase for July and predictions that total U.S. sales could reach 16 million vehicles for 2013. A new survey on the auto industry conducted by E-Score^®, a leading consumer research service that provides information to media and entertainment companies, shows consumer awareness and attitudes toward the major auto brands.

“During the past several years, consumers' criteria for choosing a car have shifted much more toward efficiency, environmental impact and size”

Ford and Chevrolet maintain their positions as the two brands with the highest awareness and overall appeal among consumers with luxury brand Porsche making its way into the top five for both categories as well. Acura, Land Rover and Toyota boast the highest brand loyalty, and Honda tops the list for "trust" and "better than competitors." Among those brands coming in with low scores across-the-board are Scion, Kia and Fiat.

"During the past several years, consumers' criteria for choosing a car have shifted much more toward efficiency, environmental impact and size," said Gerry Philpott, president of E-Poll Market Research, the provider of E-Score data. "Attributes like reliability and trust are continuing to be increasingly important to consumers as they build their relationships with brands."

Following are the results from the survey of 1,500 persons with general representation across income, age, education and geographic demographics to represent a cross-section of the U.S. population. Like, dislike, loyalty and attribute percentages are of respondents who indicated awareness of brand. See table below.

E-Score is a product of E-Poll Market Research, a full service consumer research company that provides quantitative and qualitative research to media, entertainment and Fortune 1,000 companies. E-Poll research products include E-Score Celebrity, providing in-depth appeal ratings on more than 7,500 celebrities; E-Score Brand, measuring brand equity with consumers; E-Score Character, giving insight into the popularity of fictional characters; E-Score Music, assessing the value and marketability of musicians and bands; and E-Score Programs, tracking of viewer attitudes on more than 600 television shows. E-Poll was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Angeles. More information is available at www.epollresearch.com.