U.S. Carmakers Lead in Consumer Loyalty

North America's Big Three Lead in 12 of 14 Loyalty Categories

June 25, 2003
American new car buyers are showing more loyalty to domestic brands than to imports, according to a midyear consumer loyalty report from R.L. Polk & Co. The research found that buyers were most loyal to General Motors. Polk found that 68.7 percent of GM owners who went shopping for a new car or truck in the first half of the 2003 model year wound up buying another GM vehicle.

The Polk study found that domestic manufacturers and brands enjoy consumer loyalty leadership in all but two vehicle segments - Prestige Luxury Car (BMW 7 Series) and Sports Car (Mercedes-Benz SL Class).

"The first half of the 2003 model year saw U.S. automakers overcome difficult domestic economic conditions to attract repeat buyers to dealer showrooms," said Melissa Mullen, manager of Polk's Loyalty Solutions Team. "Loyal owners always are important to automakers, but especially today as competition within the marketplace intensifies due to incentives, innovation and the influx of foreign brands and models - many of which are now made in the United States."

According to Polk's analysis, new loyalty leaders are emerging quickly in 2003. Only eight of the 14 mid-year leaders won their respective categories in the 2002 model year. The new leaders include:

• The Mercury Sable in the Midsize Car segment - a segment captured by the Toyota Camry in 2002.
• The Saturn VUE in the Compact SUV segment - won in 2002 by the Honda CR-V.
• The Lincoln Navigator in the Fullsize SUV segment - a segment dominated in recent years by the Chevrolet Suburban.
• The Lincoln Town Car in the Luxury Car segment - captured in 2002 by the Cadillac DeVille.
• The BMW 7 Series in the Prestige Luxury Car segment - captured by the Lexus LS 430 over the past two model years.
• The Jeep Grand Cherokee in the Midsize SUV segment - won in 2002 by the Mercury Mountaineer.

R.L. Polk defines loyalty as a household that buys or leases a new vehicle of the same model, make or manufacturer as the last new vehicle it owned or leased. Fleet sales are excluded from the survey, which is based on registration data.

2003 Model Year Mid-Year Loyalty Rankings (October 2002 - March 2003)
CATEGORY	LEADER	LOYALTY %	AVG. MODEL LOYALTY WITHIN CATEGORY %
OVERALL CATEGORIES:
Manufacturer Loyalty	General Motors*	68.7%	55.8%
Make Loyalty	Ford Division*	57.6%	45.5%
MODEL CATEGORIES:
Small Car	Ford Focus*	26.9%	15.4%
Midsize Car	Mercury Sable	31.5%	21.0%
Large Car	Buick LeSabre*	41.3%	31.2%
Luxury Car	Lincoln Town Car	42.9%	21.1%
Prestige Luxury Car	BMW 7 Series	32.8%	25.4%
Sports Car	Mercedes-Benz SL-Class*	25.3%	11.0%
Minivan	Chrysler Town & Country*	31.9%	17.7%
Compact Pickup Truck	Ford Ranger*	24.0%	17.9%
Fullsize Pickup Truck	Ford F-Series*	38.0%	35.6%
Compact SUV	Saturn VUE	30.2%	17.4%
Midsize SUV	Jeep Grand Cherokee	30.7%	18.6%
Fullsize SUV	Lincoln Navigator	31.9%	22.3%
* = 2002 WINNER.

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