Toyota Retains Most New-Car Buyers
J.D. Power released its annual Customer Retention Study today, and it says Toyota is the top automotive brand new-car buyers return to when looking to replace their current car. Toyota takes over the top spot from its own Lexus division this year — by a slim margin — while Honda retains its No. 3 spot. BMW and Suzuki both saw significant gains in the study, which is based on feedback from 138,630 new-car buyers.
There’s no reason to doubt such a large survey pool, but one has to wonder how valid it is to have Scion, a relatively new brand with only three models since it debuted, ranking fifth in retention. The oldest turned-in Scion could have only been 3 years old. For the full list of retention rates, click below.
Source: J.D. Power
2006 Make Retention Rates
- Toyota 63.9%
- Lexus 63.2%
- Honda 60.3%
- BMW 56.5%
- Scion 56.3%
- Cadillac 55.5%
- Chevrolet 55.3%
- Mercedes-Benz 53.6%
- Ford 53.3%
- Hyundai 51.6%
- Subaru 51.1%
- Nissan 48.8%
- Industry Average 47.9%
- Porsche 46.5%
- HUMMER 44.5%
- Suzuki 43.9%
- Kia 42.8%
- GMC 41.4%
- Land Rover 41.2%
- Jeep 40.5%
- Saturn 40.4%
- Dodge 40.1%
- Buick 39.9%
- Chrysler 38.2%
- Acura 37.6%
- Lincoln 37.3%
- Audi 35.6%
- Volkswagen 35.5%
- Volvo 35.5%
- Saab 33.4%
- MINI 32.4%
- Mercury 31.9%
- Mitsubishi 30.5%
- Jaguar 29.8%
- Infiniti 29.0%
- Pontiac 27.8%
- Mazda 26.8%
- Isuzu 4.7%
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My guess on Scion is that Toyota may consider a Scion owner who next buys a Toyota or Lexus as a retained customer.
Well Toyota might consider such a person to be a retained customer, but I certainly don't think J. D. Power would. Especially since all three Toyota brands are on the list. I would guess that many of the people who replaced an old Scion with a new Scion are replacing a car that's been totaled or perhaps stolen.
What I find most surprising is Kia's position fairly far from the bottom of the list. Are there really "Kia people" out there?
What surprises me is how far Pontiac is at the bottom of the list. Is pontiac really that bad?
I think the lineup has alot to do with retaining customers. Take mini, mercury, and infiniti for example. They are all near the bottom of this list, but they are all near the top of the satisfactory list done by JD power. Mini only has one car, if you want something bigger the next time around you are going to have to go somewhere else- even if you love mini. Mercury seems to be revamping it's lineup, but the contemporary Mariner and Milan share the lineup with the Sable, Mountaineer, and Grand Marquis- they don't attract the same people. And infiniti has brilliant cars, but no real flagship for M customers to move up to, the FX is almost a niche vehicle and the QX is huge.
Toyota makes something for (almost) everybody- then you can still move up to lexus.
hi