Toyota Prius Owners are Loyal Owners ~ Hybrid Car Review
Hybrid Car Review: Toyota Prius Owners are Loyal Owners

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Toyota Prius Owners are Loyal Owners

GM may have won the loyalty to Manufacturer (i.e. across all of their makes) with 61.4% coming back to GM, but Toyota won the Make Loyalty with 57.7% of repeat buyers according to R. L. Polk & Co.

R.L. Polk presented their 11th Annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards at the 2007 Automotive News World Congress.

Toyota took home the Midsize Car award with the Prius getting 35.0% customer loyalty. This was the first time a hybrid vehicle won an award.

"While hybrids continue to make up just a small percentage of the
overall market, hybrid owners have been known to be very enthusiastic about
their vehicles," said Polk. "We expect this trend to continue as an
increased number of manufacturers are working on adding more fuel-efficient
vehicles to their offerings."

This is not the first time the Prius has been honored, however. It has won for ideal image, best overall value, and their owners have been noted for loyalty, too..

What's not clear from the press release is whether the other hybrid cars were really counted. Since the Honda Insight was discontinued a few months ago, the Prius is the only car on the road which has only one option, that of the hybrid engine. All other makes come with hybrid engines or in more conventional gas only engines. So, since the Saturn Vue comes in a hybrid and a gas-only versions, does the Vue winning the compact SUV award count towards the hybrid version, as well? Granted, that may not be the best example since the Vue Green Line has only been available for a short time, but I imagine some of the new owners were repeat buyers of the gas only version.

           Polk Automotive Loyalty Award winners - 2006 Model year

Avg.
Category Winner Loyalty Loyalty %
% for
Category
Overall Awards:
Manufacturer Loyalty General Motors* 61.4 53.2
Make Loyalty Toyota* 57.7 44.4

Vehicle Segment
Awards:
Small Car Saturn ION* 27.8 14.6
Midsize Car Toyota Prius 35.0 17.0
Large Car Chevrolet Impala 32.4 20.9
Luxury Car Lincoln Town Car* 34.9 18.1
Prestige Luxury Car Mercedes-Benz S-Class 31.4 24.5
Sports Car Ford Mustang* 19.9 11.7
Prestige Sports Car Chevrolet Corvette 27.0 19.8
Minivan Chrysler Town & Country* 27.4 15.2
Compact Pickup Truck Toyota Tacoma* 18.7 12.2
Full-Size Pickup Truck Ford F-Series* 36.8 32.0
Compact SUV Saturn VUE 29.6 16.7
Midsize SUV Lexus RX 300/330/400h* 31.1 17.2
Full-Size SUV Chevrolet Tahoe 22.3 16.6
Prestige SUV Land Rover Range Rover* 35.5 19.5


* 2005 Model Year Polk Automotive Loyalty Award Winner

Press Release Source: PR Newswire

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