Honda and Lexus Take Top Prizes in Edmunds.com’s Best Retained Value Awards

Honda and Lexus took home the top prizes in Edmunds.com’s inaugural Best Retained Value Awards, which recognize the brands and new car models that have the highest projected residual value after five years, expressed as a percentage of their True Market Value^® (TMV^®).

Honda won the 2011 brand award for non-luxury makes, while Lexus took home the award for luxury brands. Edmunds.com found that Honda’s average projected retained value is 50.4%, while Lexus’ average projected retained value is 48.1%. In each case, the award was based on the average five-year retained value of the carmaker’s 2011 models that launched prior to the end of 2010.

Edmunds.com also named winners in 23 model-level categories. Both Honda and Lexus were well-represented at the model level, with each carmaker taking home four more awards. A full list of the model-level level winners can be found in Appendix I at the end of this release.

“A reliable assessment of a vehicle’s resale value can be a critical piece of information for consumers in the car-buying process,” said Danny Zhou, senior analyst at Edmunds.com. “Car shoppers should consider these award winners to help them choose a car with high retained value so they can maximize its worth at trade-in or sale. And for consumers who lease, selecting a car with strong resale value is just as important, because resale value is a key factor in determining the monthly lease payment.”

Edmunds.com also encourages car buyers to keep the vehicle’s retained value in mind when considering trims and options. Power sunroof, leather seats, and DVD entertainment systems are all features known to improve a car’s long-term value. Unfortunately, Edmunds.com found that added safety features don’t typically boost a car’s retained value. More details about the best options for maximizing a car’s retained value are available on Edmunds.com.

All model year 2011 vehicles that were launched by the end of 2010 and that had unit sales in February 2011 that were at least 20 percent of the average unit sales for the models in its segment were eligible for this year’s model-level Best Retained Value Awards. Edmunds determined each model's competitive segment based on its body type and the sales-weighted average MSRP of all available styles (excluding destination charges) of that model's body type. All makes that had over 100,000 unit sales in 2010 were eligible for this year’s brand-level Best Retained Value Awards.

The Best Retained Value Awards will be given annually. They join Edmunds.com’s other prestigious awards, including the annual True Cost to Own^® (TCO^®) Awards, the Breakthrough Technology Award and the Green Car Breakthrough Award.

(Source): For more information, please visit Edmunds.com’s Best Retained Value Awards page at http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/best-retained-value-cars.html.

Honda recognized by ALG 2010 Residual Value Awards

Residual or resale value is quickly becoming a consideration for new vehicle shoppers looking for maximum value and confidence.

For the past eight years, The Automotive Lease Guide, or ALG, has been awarding a Residual Value Award to carmakers who offer models with the highest expected resale values after a three-year period. Winning vehicles are chosen after the ALG carefully studies the competition in each segment and looks at historical vehicle performance and industry trends.

Quality, production levels and pricing strategies are considered, too.

For 2010, Honda was a big winner in the ALG Residual Value Awards -- achieving recognition for their Odyssey, Fit and Accord models.

ALG gave the Accord the win in the 'Best Midsize Car' category, and the Honda Fit won the title as the 'Best Compact Car'. Finally, the Odyssey prevailed in the ALG's 'Best Minivan' category.

According to Honda, they've had 20 model awards and six overall brand awards from ALG to date.

James Clark, General Manager of ALG, said "we continue to believe that residual value is the best metric for evaluating the overall strength of an automotive brand, and we congratulate all of the 2010 winners for their successful products and marketing strategies."

Other top-rated brands included Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki, and Ford. In the luxury scene, Honda's luxury division, Acura, was rated tops -- followed by Lexus, Audi, Infiniti and Land Rover.

Source;
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/wheels/article/942904

Are You Satisfied? What Automakers Retain Their Valued Customers Year After Year?

Resale value and vehicle quality have become increasingly important reasons for new-vehicle buyers to remain loyal to an automotive brand, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Customer Retention Study(SM) released today.

Now in its seventh year, the study measures the percentage of vehicle owners and lessees who replace a previously purchased new vehicle with another from the same brand. Retaining existing owners is critical to a brand's market success, particularly in the current challenging market conditions.

The study finds that the importance of resale value as a reason for owner loyalty has increased by 12 percentage points in 2009, compared with 2008. Meanwhile, the importance of vehicle quality has increased by 6 percentage points. In comparison, in 2008, the reasons with the largest increases in importance for staying loyal to a brand were safety, fuel economy and deals/incentives.

Resale value and quality have also increased in importance as reasons why brands conquest new customers from their competitors, as has the importance of appearance and styling.
"Although there are some signs of economic recovery, the outlook remains uncertain, so for many new-vehicle buyers, high resale value and quality are particularly important considerations that are driving purchase behavior," said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive product research at J.D. Power and Associates. "Whether manufacturers are striving to increase loyalty or conquesting buyers from other brands, offering attractively styled models and having strong customer perceptions of resale value and quality are critical."

Mercedes-Benz ranks highest among automotive brands in retaining vehicle owners when they buy a new-vehicle, and improves their retention rate by eight percentage points from 2008 to 67 percent in 2009. Following in the rankings are Honda (64%) and Toyota (61%).

"Mercedes-Benz has steadily improved its customer retention rates during the past five years, and in 2009, has achieved the highest rate ever attained by a manufacturer since the inception of the study," said Festekjian. "In particular, customers cite the resale value and appearance and styling of Mercedes-Benz models as primary reasons to remain loyal to the brand."

Overall customer retention in 2009 has remained stable from 2008 at 48 percent. In 2009, 13 of the 36 ranked brands have improved in customer retention rates from 2008, while 20 have declined and three have remained stable. MINI and Porsche post the greatest improvements in customer retention rates from 2008, each improving by 14 percentage points in 2009. For MINI, this improvement is driven primarily by incentives and customer perceptions of resale value of the brand's models. For Porsche, the increase is due to resale value, fuel economy and quality.

The 2009 Customer Retention Study is based on responses from 128,939 new-vehicle buyers and lessees, of which 74,610 replaced a vehicle that was previously acquired new. The study was fielded between February and May 2009 and August and October 2009.

2009 Make Retention Rates

Mercedes-Benz 67%

Honda 64%

Toyota 61%

Lexus 57%

Subaru 57%

Ford 56%

Nissan 55%

Chevrolet 54%

BMW 52%

Porsche 52%

Industry Average 48%

Hyundai 47%

Audi 45%

Volkswagen 44%

Cadillac 43%

MINI 43%

Dodge 42%

Lincoln 39%

Acura 38%

GMC 38%

HUMMER 38%

Kia 37%

Jeep 34%

Mazda 31%

Scion 31%

Mercury 29%

Volvo 29%

Pontiac 28%

Chrysler 27%

Jaguar 26%

Buick 25%

Infiniti 25%

Land Rover 25%

Mitsubishi 25%

Saturn 25%

Suzuki 24%

SAAB 9%

Source;

http://www.autospies.com/news/Are-You-Satisfied-What-Automakers-Retain-Their-Valued-Customers-Year-After-Year-50350/