The Consumer Reports magazine in the US scores the auto manufacturers each year. The magazine’s perception scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven buying areas, ranked in the order consumers say are important: Quality, safety, performance, value, fuel economy, design/style and technology/innovation.
Here are the top 10 from the 2013 survey.
1. Toyota
2. Ford
3. Honda
4. Chevrolet
5. Tesla
6. Subaru
7. Mercedes-Benz
8. Volvo
9. Cadillac
10. BMW
Consumer Reports show that despite all the recalls by Toyota of a couple of years ago, Toyota continues to lead the Consumer Reports car/brand perception survey. Tesla and Subaru broke into the top 10 for the first time. One manufacturer that dropped was Hyundai.
Consumer Reports’ David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, said it isn’t always clear what drives perceptions. “Recalls are a measure of quality and the question is how did they defeat perceptions from the recalls,” he said.
Perceptions “lag reality” and brands can take years and lots of advertising to turn around their image – even if their vehicles have dramatically improved.
The Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted the random, nationwide telephone survey of 1,578 adults from Dec. 6-15, 2013, and collected survey data from 1,764 adults in households that had at least one car.
