• by Karl Greenberg , April 1, 2011

Automakers are seeing loyalty rates rise, but Ford is seeing some of the strongest loyalty numbers. The automaker, to whom market research firm Polk awarded its Automotive Loyalty Award early this year, has the most loyal owners in the U.S.

Polk has come out with new data that extends and elaborates upon the model-year data on which those awards were based. The new data, encompassing the 2010 calendar year, look at overall brand loyalty from January to January last year, for both 2010 and 2011 models. The awards were based on 2010 models and a time frame from fall of 2009 to fall 2010.

General Motors and Toyota are second and third after Ford, which includes Lincoln. General Motors has 59.9% loyalty and Toyota has 58.8% loyalty. Polk, which bases monthly loyalty numbers on households returning to market to purchase or lease a new vehicle of the same model or make as the one they are replacing, said Ford boosted loyalty rates by 4.5 percentage points and led all brands with an owner loyalty rate of 60.3% for the full year.

Meanwhile, industry-wide brand loyalty last year improved 2.1 percentage points, giving the U.S. auto market the highest brand loyalty rate since Polk first began calculating industry brand loyalty in 1996.

Across all vehicle models, Mercedes-Benz's E-Class has the most loyal owners, followed by Ford's F-Series pickup truck. The models saw loyalty improve by 7.3 and 5.6 percentage points, respectively. The vehicle with the third-most loyal owners was Lincoln's MKZ sedan, which saw a 16.2 percentage point lift that gave it a 41.6% owner loyalty rate.

Brad Smith, director of Polk's owner loyalty management practice, tells Marketing Daily that, of the 12,000 Lincoln MKZ owners who returned to market last year, 54% bought another Ford and over 41% bought another MKZ. He says Ford's high rates of loyalty are skewed by the huge loyalty garnered by the F-150, 42.4% of whose owners bought another F-150 and 63.2% another Ford when they returned to market last year. "Almost a third of Ford's loyalty is driven by F-Series alone," he says -- adding that after F-Series trucks, the Escape, Focus, Explorer and Fusion have the most loyal owners.

How about General Motors' trucks? Smith says Chevrolet's Silverado also has significant return to market value, with 56.4% of Silverado owners having bought another Chevrolet last year, and 33.9% buying another Silverado. Smith explains that Ford's loyalty rates for its trucks are higher than GM's partly because the 2011 F-150 is newer. "We see those refresh cycles having a major impact on owner loyalty," he says. "Whether it's the vehicle or the buzz around the fact that it got refreshed, launches drive consumer interest. Keeping up on product launches and refreshes over the three- to-five-year cycle definitely has an impact."

He says the other issue is that Silverado and the sibling GMC Sierra split volume to some extent, as they are platform mates that consumers cross shop, meaning if someone opts for the Sierra instead of Silverado it would appear to drop Silverado loyalty rates. "You don't have that issue with Ford. So from the manufacturer perspective the numbers are actually a little closer."

Smith also points out that the sheer breadth of General Motors' four-brand lineup has a lot to do with its strong corporate showing that puts it behind Ford and ahead of Toyota. "When you have that umbrella of product offerings -- luxury brands, pickups, mass-market -- you have more opportunities for corporate owner loyalty because if someone wants to go from a pickup to a luxury vehicle they can stay within the company's brands." He says Hyundai has also seen loyalty rise. The company, 52.8% of whose owners bought another Hyundai last year, is now number six -- just behind Chevrolet.

A trend among midsized car owners is that while they tend to be brand loyal, they aren't that loyal to the segment -- which tends to be emotionally neutral, driven by necessity whose practical value and that changes year to year. While 55% of Malibu owners stayed with GM last year, only 23% of them purchased another Malibu. Seventy percent of Ford Fusion owners purchased another Ford and 30% purchased another Fusion, he says.