May 1st, 2023, Hoang Nguyen
Japanese automakers Toyota, Honda and Subaru dominated YouGov’s Auto Rankings 2023 in the US.
The annual rankings are determined by a brand’s Index score, a measure of overall brand health calculated by taking the average of General Impression, Quality, Value, Customer Satisfaction, Recommendation, and Corporate Reputation scores in YouGov BrandIndex from January 1 to December 31, 2022.
Download YouGov’s full Auto Rankings 2023 to see how car brands performed across 18 global markets.
Toyota was the best performer of all auto brands in the US, with an Index score of 35.6. Runner-up Honda also performed well, with a brand health score of 30.1.
The race was close following the top two brands, with Subaru (20.9), Chevrolet (20.7) and Ford (20.3) all competing fiercely to round out our top five brands.
Several luxury car brands were also involved in tight competition, with Lexus at no. 7 (15.6), Mercedes-Benz at no. 8 (15.5) and BMW at no. 9 (15).
How did the top automakers earn their success among US consumers?
Let's take a closer look at the metrics comprising each brand’s Index score to measure just how the top performers last year stacked up against the overall car sector in the US.
Starting with Toyota, we see that the brand’s Index score is driven primarily by its Impression and Quality scores. Comparing those same metrics, Toyota’s scores dwarves those of the overall car sector by +28.1 points and +26.7 points, respectively.
Honda’s overall brand health can also primarily be attributed to its Impression and Quality scores. Honda comes closest to the top performer Toyota in the Value and Quality metrics. The biggest gap between the two is in the Satisfaction category, where Honda trails by –6.5-points.
Like Honda and Toyota, third-place Subaru’s overall brand health is spurred by Impression and Quality metrics. The brand also tends to outperform the car sector when it comes to measures of Reputation, Recommend and Value. Where the brand lags considerably behind the top two brands, however, is in its Customer Satisfaction scores.
Toyota and Honda’s Satisfaction scores sat at 24.4 and 17.9-points, respectively, over the last year. Subaru’s Satisfaction score on the other hand is closer to that of the overall car sector’s score (7.1 vs. 5.5-points).
Get the full global rankings in YouGov's new Auto Rankings 2023 for free.
Methodology
The brand perception metrics considered in the rankings include:
Impression – Whether a consumer has a positive or negative impression of a brand
Value – Whether a consumer considers a brand to represent good or poor value for money
Reputation – Whether a consumer would be proud or embarrassed to work for a particular brand
Satisfaction – Whether a consumer is currently a satisfied or dissatisfied customer of a particular brand
Recommend – Whether a consumer would recommend a brand to a friend or colleague or not
Quality – Whether a consumer considers a brand to represent good or poor quality
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