J.D. Power and Associates released its U.S. 2008 Customer Retention Study on Wednesday, with Honda knocking of Toyota for the top spot. The survey measures the percentage of customers who replace vehicles with models from the same automaker.
Honda’s 64.7 percent of customers that came back for a second helping just edged out Toyota’s 63.2 percent. Toyota’s Lexus brand finished third in the study, followed by Mercedes-Benz and BMW .
“ Honda ’s reputation for creating safe vehicles with high resale value has been instrumental in retaining owners,” Debbie Ortuno, product research and analysis manager at J.D. Power, told Automotive News. Honda’s lineup of fuel-efficient vehicles probably didn’t hurt, either.
Only 11 brands ranked above the industry average of 48 percent, with four of those spots going to Japanese automakers. The only domestic brands above the industry average were Ford , Chevrolet and Cadillac .
The study also found that customer retention slipped in 2008 – a sign of increased competition — with the industry average falling from 49 percent.
