• by Tanya Gazdik , April 29, 2019

Honda wins Best Overall Brand for a second consecutive year in Kelley Blue Book’s 2019 Brand Image Awards. The automaker was also recognized as the Best Value Brand and Most Refined Brand.

The winners are based on consumer automotive perception data from Kelley Blue Book Strategic Insights’ Brand Watch study. The study taps into more than 12,000 in-market new-vehicle shoppers annually on KBB.com, offering insights into how shoppers perceive factors driving their purchase decisions and capturing brand/model familiarity and loyalty among new-car shoppers.

Award categories are calculated among luxury, non-luxury and truck shoppers.

On the luxury side, Lexus wins Best Overall Luxury Brand for the fourth year in a row, achieving the highest average score across all ratings of luxury models. Lexus was also named Most Trusted Luxury Brand. Mercedes-Benz was named Most Refined Luxury Brand.

Toyota dethroned Ford and wins its second-ever Best Overall Truck Brand award. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma received the No. 2 and No. 3 highest model rating in the latest Brand Watch study, pushing the brand to victory.

New to the winners’ circle for 2019 are Acura with its Best Value Luxury Brand win, Porsche for Best Car Styling Luxury Brand and Dodge for Best Car Styling Brand. Subaru was named the Most Trusted Brand and Mazda wins as Best Performance Brand.

Automotive brands are among the most recognizable, most valued brands in the world, according to KBB.

“Building familiarity and loyalty among car shoppers has never been more important to automakers, especially as the market is flooded with all-new and redesigned models competing for market share,” says Hwei-Lin Oetken, director of strategic insights for Kelley Blue Book. “Compelling product and marketing communications continues to influence purchase consideration. This year’s winners have attracted car shoppers based on many attributes that are important to consumers and motivate them toward their ultimate purchase decision.”