Car brands Subaru and Tesla have risen considerably in the esteem of potential car buyers, according to Consumer Reports’ latest Car-Brand Perception Survey.
Subaru and Tesla broke into the top 10 just this year. Tesla’s fifth, and Subaru is sixth.
Toyota, Ford, Honda and Chevrolet are the four brands with the most-favorable public perception, the survey showed.
And people disdain some very high-end machinery, such as Land Rover and Rolls-Royce.
Perception isn’t necessarily reality. The scores are unrelated to the magazine’s surveys of reliability or the publication’s road and track tests nor are they connected to government and private crash-test scores.
Thus, a well-regarded car brand actually could be selling bad vehicles and a poorly regarded brand might sell some of the best. Eventually the reality would change perceptions, but it could take a long time, Consumer Reports says.
The telephone survey of 1,578 random adults in households that owned cars was conducted Dec. 6 through 15 last year.
People were asked to name brands, then were questioned about those brands. They were not read a list of auto brands.
As part of the process, people were asked to name the brands that they thought were stellar in seven categories: quality, safety, performance, value, fuel economy, design/style, technology/innovation.
The overall score is a blend of how each brand did and how important each of the categories is to people.
“The key word here is ‘perception,’ as influenced by word-of-mouth, marketing and hands-on experience,” Consumer Reports Deputy Editor Jeff Bartlett said.
In the end, most people make actual buying choices based not on techno-whiz or glitz and hype, but on “wallet issues,” Bartlett said, such as value and fuel economy.
He says it’s clear to most shoppers that “you might think a particular super-model is hot, but she’s not wife material.”
In his view, the best match between perception and reality is Toyota, which is No. 1 on the perception survey and also scores high on other surveys that measure quality, fuel economy and other attributes people say they value most.
It’s also a mass-market brand with many models “so hits the hot buttons on a lot of people,” he said. Niche brands that target small audiences might have a tougher time earning public esteem, he said.
A mismatch, Barlett said, is Ford.
It’s No. 2 behind Toyota on the overall rankings and No. 3 in separate rankings of quality perception. But “Ford has been very inconsistent. A lot of their new models have been less than stellar,” he said.
The redesigned 2013 Escape SUV, for instance, went on sale in June 2012 and was recalled seven times by late November, five of those involving fire risks in models with the 1.6-liter engine.
Perception often is tied to brand loyalty – people who buy another and another -- and that’s important to car companies’ profits.
“The important takeaway is, as a consumer, don’t make an assumption. Just because your daddy’s car was great, that doesn’t mean it still is and you should buy one,” Bartlett said.
For automakers, the Consumer Report perception scores are a report card on marketing.
Electric-car maker Tesla, for example, has been hit by sensational reports about several fires. But CEO Elon Musk quickly has gotten the drivers of the cars on record saying the cars weren’t at fault and, indeed, saved them from worse harm.
Tesla cars also have good crash-test scores, which Musk has heavily publicized.
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