GM Tops Loyalty Rankings

August 20, 2002
General Motors has once again topped the overall customer loyalty rankings in the semi-annual R. L. Polk & Co. survey.

For the first half of the 2002 model year, General Motors had the highest percentage of loyal customers of any automaker that sells vehicles in the United States, the survey found.

The company defines loyalty as a household that buys or leases a new vehicle of the same model, make or manufacturer as they had bought or leased in the past 10 years. The information is based on vehicle registration data.

The study found that 68.5 percent of consumers who bought or leased a GM vehicle in the 2002 model year previously had bought or leased a GM vehicle sometime in the past 10 years.

Ford Division had the highest percentage of repeat customers of any vehicle division.

Eleven of the 14 mid-year leaders won in their respective categories for the 2001 model year. However, new leaders have emerged in three categories:

• Threatening two-time winner Subaru Forester, the Honda CRV emerged as mid-year leader in the compact SUV segment, eleven percentage points higher than the overall category average.
• The Buick Century, winner in the mid-size car segment from 1998 through 2000 model years, recaptured its lead. So far, the Century's loyalty rate is ten percentage points higher than the segment average.
• The Cadillac Escalade leads the full-size SUV segment with a seven percent lead over the second ranked Chevrolet Suburban, the winner of the Polk Automotive Loyalty Award in this segment for the past two model years.