Polk Loyalty Awards Put GM, Ford on Top

[ragingfish]

Quote »Polk Loyalty Awards Put GM, Ford on TopR. L. Polk & Co.'s annual Loyalty Awards are out, and American makes have done well once more in the measure of how many customers return to buy another vehicle from them. The overall leader among automakers was General Motors which, says Polk president Stephen R. Polk, is due in part to the company's broad offerings. "The more vehicle choices an automaker provides a returning customer, the more likely the customer will remain within the manufacturer family." The Ford brand of Ford Motor Company was the single brand luring the highest percentage of buyers back to its fold, an honor the brand has won each year since Polk began handing out the awards in 1996. New brands in the winner's circle include Jaguar and Land Rover, which put their XK coupes and Range Rover SUV at the top of their respective segments. Six category winners repeated in 2004, including the Chrysler Town & Country, Ford Ranger, Ford F-Series, Subaru Forester, Mercury Mountaineer and Ford Expedition. Loyalty Award Winners - 2004 Model YearManufacturerGeneral MotorsMakeFord DivisionSmall CarSaturn IONMid-size carToyota CamryLarge CarBuick LeSabre Luxury CarCadillac DeVillePrestige Luxury CarLexus LS 430Sports CarFord MustangPrestige Sports CarJaguar XKMinivanChrysler Town & CountryCompact PickupFord RangerFull-Size PickupFord F-SeriesCompact SUVSubaru ForesterMid-Size SUVMercury MountaineerFull-Size SUVFord ExpeditionPrestige SUVLand Rover Range Rover http://www.thecarconnection.co...=8006

[kostby]

Interesting! There are no 'loyalty' percentages given in this report. I suspect that the percentages are abysmally low - on the order of 15-20 percent, even for the highest ranking models in categories.I want to dig further and try to find the original Polk data...

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by kostby »Looks kinda 'frosty' on the Summit! LOLI think you got your threads mixed up there Kostby...

[kostby]

Yup. Fixed it with [EDIT].Still looking for loyalty percentages. Apparently Polk publically releases manufacturers and makes, but no numbers.Link to 2003-2000 Polk Loyalty awards, which also contains a link to 1999-1996 Awards. --> http://www.polk.com/loyalty/index.aspIn short, Ford has been the top MAKE every year since 1997 (when the awards apparently began). GM has been top MANUFACTURER all but one year since that award began in 1997. (1999 mfg. was Ford)EDIT:Even more interesting, the very next story in ragingfishes original link isQuote »GM Earnings Drop 37 Percent General Motors Corp. is hoping to break even during the first quarter of 2005 after a 37-percent drop in earnings in the fourth quarter of 2004, as the company struggled with higher costs for healthcare and materials such as steel, as well as rising inventories of unsold vehicles. So owner loyalty does not a profit make!