• by Tanya Gazdik , Staff Writer, January 23, 2023

Hyundai Motor America has ranked first in customer loyalty in the automotive industry for 14 — yes, 14 — consecutive years.

That’s according to the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. The brand is also in the top 20 among all brands and has finished inside the top 20 every year since 2017, per Brand Keys. Notably, Hyundai was the only automotive company awarded a spot in the Top 20 in 2023.

None of this surprises me. I have test driven several Hyundais in the past year, and the vehicles only continue to improve in terms of design and comfort.

“We try to ensure that our customers have the best experiences possible, from shopping to repurchase, by leveraging our excellent technologies and class-leading service programs at every step of the journey,” says Angela Zepeda, CMO, Hyundai Motor America, in a release.

Just two weeks ago, I had an impromptu opportunity to drive a Hyundai Santa Fe during a vacation road trip in Florida. 

This was not a spare-no-options media test drive vehicle. Instead, it was a rental car I picked up at the airport in Miami. Despite its lack of bells and whistles, the small SUV impressed me.

I got to know the Santa Fe pretty well during the boring drive across the state’s famous “Alligator Alley.” When you are warned that there are “no services” for 50 miles, they aren’t kidding. But there was construction and closed lanes/merges, which resulted in many miles of stressful stop-and-go traffic. 

The adaptive cruise control worked like a dream and reduced the work my right foot had to do between gas and brake. 

I also really appreciated the entertainment center touch screen. It was positioned perfectly in my sight line and allowed me to interact with the Waze app to report or affirm the presence of stopped cars and other driving issues without taking my eyes off of the road.

It’s easy to see why Hyundai comes up first in the loyalty survey year after year. 

For 2023, Brand Keys interviewed 113,550 consumers, ages 16 to 65, drawn from the nine U.S. Census Regions. Respondents self-selected categories in which they are consumers and brands for which they are customers, assessing 987 brands in 110 categories. 

“Because expectations are more emotionally based today, brands have a difficult time identifying and tracking them,” said Robert Passikoff, Brand Keys founder and president, in a release. “But there are ‘hero’ brands that pretty much ‘own’ the No.1 spot in their categories long enough to earn a ‘perennial loyalty’ designation. Hyundai is one of those brands.”