The Polk Blog

In my last post, I discussed the importance of retaining young vehicle buyers. In this blog, I thought I would share some 2011 calendar year-end findings regarding owner loyalty and age.

The chart below shows the distribution of owners returning to market based on age.

Owners between the ages of 35-64 account for more than 70% of all return to market activity. Yet as seen in the graph below, less than 50% (46.6%) of these owners are loyal to their given brand.

It is clear from the graph above that...

Common sense suggests that gaining a first time buyer provides the opportunity to create a customer for life. Yet analyzing repurchase behavior among the younger demographic set suggests that manufacturers and dealers alike are not doing enough to retain younger buyers when they return to market. Admittedly, younger buyers represent a small percentage of total repurchase activity, less than 1% for buyers 18-24 and 7.5% for buyers 25-34, but it’s not necessarily about the value these customers...

Engaging diverse markets has become an increasingly important initiative for the automotive industry. The contributions of these consumers have been widely documented by automotive analysts including my colleague, Marc Bland. In an effort to further quantify the value of diversity marketing, I thought I’d look back at 2011 from an ethnic loyalty perspective.

In 2011, 1,033,097 African-American, Asian and Hispanic new vehicle owners returned to market to buy a new vehicle. Of these owners, 47%...

Last month, I had the opportunity to speak at the Digital Market Strategies Conference, an event hosted by First Class Educators. If you are focused on the retail side of the automotive industry and haven’t attended an event hosted by First Class Educators, I highly recommend it. The staff, venue and speakers are top notch.

I co-presented during the afternoon keynote address with Matt Murray from Dealer.com. Our session focused on the impact of social media on initial vehicle purchase and...

Dependence on foreign oil, increasing fuel costs and concerns for the environment have forced OEMs to develop solutions to improve the efficiency of new vehicles and their response could be seen at the North American International Auto Show which was held in Detroit from January 9 - January 22, 2012.

For those consumers wishing to stick with gasoline engines, Mazda's Skyactiv technology is something worth considering. Skyactiv is the combination of an efficient high compression gasoline engine, a...

On January 10, 2012, Polk announced the winners of the 16th Annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards and one question has been asked over and over again, where was General Motors? GM did not win an award this year, but finished second in the Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer category. Similarly, the Chevrolet Silverado finished second in the Mid/Full-Size Pickup Truck category.

To some it might appear as though GM has poor owner loyalty, but nothing could be further from the truth since General Motors...

For the second straight year, I had the opportunity to attend the Automotive News World Congress. This event provides attendees with an opportunity to hear the current state of the automotive industry and opinions on the future from some of the most respected leaders across the industry. This year's event was no exception and one thing was clear, the U.S. auto industry is refreshed and revitalized.

Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance spoke about the importance of...

My how time flies! A year has passed and once again, we have honored excellence in owner loyalty during last night's 16th annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards. The awards were presented as part of the Automotive News World Congress held in Detroit, MI on January 10th, 2012. 
 
Ford dominated this year's ceremony winning six of 16 awards, including the prestigious Overall Loyalty to Make and Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer awards. In addition to these honors, Ford also won model loyalty awards...

"Looks Like a Million Bucks. Starts Under $20,000." That's Hyundai's tagline for the 2011 Sonata and it's working. In the first quarter of the 2011 calendar year, the Hyundai Sonata conquested more owners than any other car in the U.S. marketplace-18,587 to be exact. Ford F-Series was the only vehicle with more total conquests during the same time period (20,483). Perhaps even more impressive is that for every 100 Sonata owners it loses when they return to market, Hyundai gains 365 from other...

My last blog post discussed my intention to really shop for my next vehicle amid disappointment with the lack of available incentives for Saturn owners like myself. I visited several stores and test drove multiple products and the thing that stood out most from this experience was the lack of responsiveness of dealership sales consultants.

After my initial visits and test drives, I asked for lease and retail finance pricing to be sent to me via email. In almost every instance I was told to...

I am a loyal GM owner having purchased six new GM vehicles over the last 10+ years with the last three purchases being Saturns. The Saturns were all purchased from the same sales consultant at the same dealership, but now that store sits empty and my sales consultant resides in parts unknown as I return to market for my next purchase. 

My wife's Saturn Outlook is due to come off lease in a little over 2 months (December 2010), but she is at her mileage limit and I am interested in getting her...

Over the last several years, I have spent a considerable amount of time analyzing automotive repair data. Most of these analyses were very specific to reporting dealer performance or optimizing service reminder business rules. However, while conducting these analyses I began to wonder if there was a cause-and-effect relationship between vehicle service events and the likelihood of an owner to return to the dealer for service or ultimately repurchase the brand.

I recently had the opportunity to...