If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, you may wonder what, if any, industry awards and certifications you should consider. Companies like J.D. Power provide unbiased rankings on how various automakers stack up against their competitors to help consumers make informed decisions about their next ride.
What Is J.D. Power?
J.D. Power and Associates (often shortened to J.D. Power) provides consumer insights, advisory service, and data analytics for businesses across the world. Since 1968, J.D. Power has advised businesses on how to improve their customer-facing strategies.
J.D. Power’s initial focus was the automotive industry, but they expanded to serve businesses in a wide range of sectors:
- financial services
- healthcare
- insurance
- technology, media, and telecom
- travel and hospitality
- senior living
- utilities
J.D. Power Awards
One of the main ways J.D. Power helps consumers find reliable products is by offering data-based brand awards and rankings. The J.D. Power awards are produced from J.D. Power Consumer Studies, which gather consumer feedback about a particular product or service. According to the company, over 200,000 commercials and 2 billion print ad impressions have mentioned J.D. Power awards every year since the 1980s.
Automotive Brand Loyalty
Of the many awards J.D. Power gives out, Automotive Brand Loyalty is one of the most sought after for automakers. This evaluates how many consumers choose the same brand for their new vehicle when trading in their existing vehicle. This evaluates how many consumers choose the same brand for their new vehicle when trading in their existing vehicle. A brand with a high loyalty rating may be associated with dependability and be able to attract consumers interested in trying out a new automaker.
In the first three years of the study, J.D. Power compiled automotive loyalty ratings into one collective list. Starting this year, the rankings will now be broken into the following categories: premium cars, premium SUVs, mass market cars, mass market SUVs, and trucks.
2022 US Automotive Brand Loyalty Rankings
In September 2022, J.D. Power released which brands achieved the top two highest loyalty rates of the year. These rankings were calculated from transaction data from September 2021 through August 2022. The data included all vehicles, regardless of the model year. J.D. Power acquired this information from their Power Information Network (PIN), which collects data from over 16,000 participating franchises in CanadaCanada and the US.
The press release for these results included a disclaimer that lower-than-normal production rates could have affected overall brand loyalty this year. Despite this, all the top brands showed a commitment to launching new products and a concern for the consumer’s wants and needs.
Premium Cars
This year, Porsche ranked the highest among premium car brands, with a 57.4% loyalty rate. Genesis came in at a close second with 54.6%.
For premium brand SUVs, BMW had the highest loyalty rate, with 58.6%. Lexus was ranked second with 56.4%.
Mass Market Cars
Toyota garnered the most loyalty among mass market car brands, with 62.2% of consumers returning in 2022. Second place was Kia with 54.1%
Toyota was also ranked the highest among mass market SUVs, with a 63.6% loyalty rate. Subaru came in second with 62.6%
Trucks
The highest loyalty rate among truck brands was 63.8%, which belongs to Ford. Toyota made another appearance by securing the second-place spot at 58.7%.
Choosing Your Next Vehicle
As electric vehicles (EVs) continue to rise in popularity, the status quo in the J.D. Power automotive loyalty rankings may begin to shift. But, whether or not new players take over those top spots, many consumers will continue to rely on J.D. Power’s reports when picking their next vehicle. For more automotive tips and news, visit our blog.