UK: Measuring how Volkswagen, Ford and Mercedes earned their success in YouGov’s Auto Rankings 2023
German automaker Volkswagen placed first in YouGov's Auto Rankings 2023 for the UK.
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 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.
Download YouGov’s full Auto Rankings 2023 to see how car brands performed across 18 global markets.
Volkwagen earned the top spot among all auto brands in the UK with an Index score of 22.2, followed by runners-up Ford (21.2) and Mercedes-Benz (20.6). Audi, which earned an index score of 19.6, came in fourth and Toyota placed fifth with a score of 19.3.
YouGov’s Auto Rankings 2023 also revealed the top improvers of last year, with Kia, Hyundai and CUPRA showing the highest uplift in their Index scores.
Read more about how Hyundai smashed records with its latest ad campaign and became one of the most talked about brands in early 2023.
How did Volkswagen, Ford and Mercedes-Benz earn their success?
We took a closer look at the metrics comprising each brand’s Index score to understand how just how the top performers last year stacked up against the overall car sector in the UK.
Let’s start with the top- ranked brand, Volkswagen. The automaker’s general shape across Impression, Reputation, Recommend, Value, Quality and Satisfaction scores resembles that of the overall car sector except that it outperforms the sector in every metric.
We see the biggest differences in the Impression (Volkswagen leads the car sector by +17.8-points) and Quality categories (+20.8-points).
As for Ford, we see the American manufacturer outperform the overall car sector most in its Value (+19-points) and Recommend scores (+14.7-points)
Lastly, we see Mercedes-Benz take a completely different shape in terms of overall brand health compared to the car sector in the UK.
While the luxury carmaker lags behind the overall car sector in terms of Value (-7.4-points), we see that it dwarfs the sector in terms of Quality (+30.5-points) and Reputation (+22.4-points). The luxury brand’s success in these two latter categories was so great that it even outperforms both Volkswagen and Ford.
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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