• by Karl Greenberg , January 5, 2011

People believe the Ford brand has gained a lot of ground, while Toyota has declined over the past two years, according to Consumer Reports' 2011 Car Brand Perception Survey.

The survey says the two car companies are in a "statistical dead heat," but that Ford excels in the factors that consumers say matter most: safety, quality and value.

The scores in the survey reflect the way consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: safety, quality, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation, and environmentally friendly/ green. Measuring across those categories provides the total brand perception and does not directly represent the actual qualities of any brand's vehicles.

Jeff Bartlett, online editor for autos at Consumer Reports, explains that an automaker's overall score is an aggregate of individual scores in each of the seven different categories. "One reason Ford is so strong is that its score is consistently high in all of those categories," he says, adding that Toyota led only two categories.

During the last two years, Ford has climbed by 35 percentage points while Toyota has fallen by 46 points, according to the magazine. Total scores are 144 and 147, respectively. That's a far cry from a year ago, when Toyota led both Ford and Honda. The two were second and third in overall favorability in the survey. But this year, Toyota is a photo finish ahead of Ford. Ford has created a lot of distance between itself and Honda, whose score has dropped 28 points since 2008.

After Honda come Chevrolet, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Lexus, Cadillac, and Subaru. Honda and Chevrolet retained their third- and fourth-place finishes, while BMW leaped over Volvo and Mercedes-Benz to capture fifth place.

Bartlett says the fact that Hyundai has scant presence atop any of the perception categories and isn't on the short list of overall top auto brands in terms of consumer perception is surprising. "With Hyundai experiencing a renaissance I thought they would be more prominent," he says. "But the fact that they are a no show in the top listings also shows how perception is a lagging indicator; it doesn't react on a dime, which is what automakers always wish for. But it takes years."

The firm says its raft of new vehicles with better performance, reliability and styling drives Ford's rise. What hurt Toyota were its recalls, although the survey found that the automaker still holds a big lead over everyone else in environmentally friendly/green attributes -- 46 versus Ford's 18. Unfortunately, Consumer Reports says, environmental props are becoming less and less important to consumers. And Ford would have taken the No. 1 spot if it weren't for that vector of Toyota's overall score.

Now only 28% of consumers -- down 4 percentage points from last year and 12 points from 2008 -- say environmental friendliness is important. "What we have seen consistently is that people have an awareness of green factors, but when it comes to buying a car, few are willing to pay more, so it's a tie-breaker element at best," says Bartlett. The survey found that the most important considerations for purchase are safety (for 65% of respondents), quality (57%), and value (51%).

Toyota had also been the undisputed leader in the quality perception until this year, but the magazine found that Honda and Ford now lead Toyota, which is followed by Chevrolet and Mercedes-Benz.

Bartlett says the scores are good predictors of future behavior. "What does this mean for brand loyalty? What you see is that the consumer perception of the brand's strengths translates to future consumer behavior. Continued weakness for Toyota means brand loyalty is still strong but down. And among those looking to purchase, Ford really dominates. Eighteen percent of shoppers are considering a Ford."

In the realm of safety, Volvo -- no surprise -- is the leader in people's minds with a 50-point advantage over second-place Ford.

For "value," Ford edged out Honda by a percentage point and Honda slipped past Toyota by the same amount. And the value category is the one region where Hyundai does have a strong showing, coming in fourth ahead of Chevrolet.

The results are from a nationwide telephone survey from Dec. 2-6, reaching 2,019 adults, and collecting data from 1,721 adults in households that had at least one car.