U.S. Auto Brands Receive Higher Ratings Than Their Japanese Counterparts

Top American non-luxury auto brands received higher ratings and less negative comments from online consumers than competing Japanese brands, according to an analysis of consumer opinions collected from automotive review websites by Biz360.

The research, which aggregated a year’s worth of customer reviews and comments from websites such as Auto Mall USA, Edmunds, IntelliChoice and Yahoo Autos, isolated the attributes and features most likely to be commented on by consumers and determined the factors that most influence satisfaction and purchase decisions in the automotive category. It then set out to determine which brands had more positive and negative comments and which comments were more influential overall.

Biz360 found that performance, comfort and exterior styling are the most important product attributes, and - along with general opinions - they accounted for more than 75% of all online opinions on non-luxury automobiles.

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Specific brand findings:

• Ford (F) and Chevrolet (GM) ranked higher on more key product attributes than did Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC), and Ford outranked all three car companies overall in rankings across these attributes.

• Over the past year, Toyota vehicles received 16% more negative comments than the average of the negative comments for the four brands combined.

• Both Ford & Chevrolet brands outranked Honda and Toyota on Biz360’s “net advocacy” measurement, which incorporates positive and negative sentiment and weight of individual comments.
  

• Both Honda and Toyota accounted for a higher percentage of negative opinions than their two domestic counterparts.

“With the national spotlight focused on the fortunes of US automakers, we were interested in looking at consumer feedback of the most popular brands in the mid-size car category,” said Stephen Foster, senior director of analyst services at Biz360. “The results of the analysis are encouraging for these domestic brands. They indicate that certain American cars brands are considered superior to equivalent Japanese brands by consumers when they discuss the key attributes of performance, comfort & exterior styling.”

About the research: Using its proprietary Opinion Insights analytics technology, Biz360 analyzed nearly 300,000 online opinions posted between October 31, 2007 and November 1, 2008. The technology is built on advanced data aggregation and analytics techniques, including natural language processing (NLP) to enable expert and consumer review extraction and analysis across multiple brands, products, attributes and features.

Comments

[uncle bubba:]

Everyone seems mute when any good news or positive feedback on domestic autos is printed. I guess the facts don't support some peoples preconcieved stereotypes, but I knew better all along. Happy Thanksgiving

2008 Nov 26 05:38 PM

[User 307775:]

Too specific to be useful.

Why did they only focus on midsize / non-luxury cars?

Talking about grasping at straws...

2008 Nov 26 07:21 PM

[working at ...:]

Where o where have all the idiots gone. My guess is that silence is golden. My grand other always said if you do not have anything good to say then do not say it. I wonder if all the nay sayers are eating crow instead of turkey for thanksgiving. Lets all be thankful that the truth about real quality has been published.

2008 Nov 26 10:40 PM

[Paul Killinger:]

I have a HALF MILLION miles on my '96 Nissan King Cab and it continues to run perfectly well. Compare that with a small domestic truck.

2008 Nov 27 10:24 AM

[Paul Killinger:]

Nevertheless, this is GREAT NEWS about America's domestic brands. Now all they need to do is figure out how to build vehicles drivers WANT TO OWN and MAKE MONEY at the same time. Reinstituting small trucks would be a good start.

2008 Nov 27 10:30 AM

[Ames Tiedeman:]

They should take this data to Congress. I have never seen a worse "sales job" in my life. It is not that I am in favor of the bailout, but for sure if you are going to ask for 25 billion you had better have a power point presentation, at the very least! Show them your 2011 cars. Sell Wagoner, Sell!!!!

2008 Nov 27 10:58 AM

[bbowen7:]

Perhaps we are witnessing enough of a "slap upside the face" to the auto industry to lead to a legitimate "Buy American" movement - if quality and price is competitive. We may be getting the message that we all sink or swim together.

2008 Nov 27 01:18 PM

[Nadeem:]

American cars excellent with (SS)style and safety.

2008 Nov 28 10:11 AM

[quick:]

To anyone who's driven an American car or truck within the last 5-10 years, it's been obvious that they've closed the gap in quality between them and all the foreign car makers. However, you'll never hear that from anyone on Wall St. because they're too busy driving their BMWs and Lexus' to pay attention to what has been made by Ford and GM. They'd rather bash and criticize them because of the expensive unions than actually look at what kind of products are being made now. Meanwhile all the banks, brokerages, and insurance companies they work for are going bankrupt left and right, but they are somehow entitled to unlimited government bailouts without any restrictions. Yea, that seems fair.

2008 Nov 28 12:13 PM

[critterz42:]

Have you ever read Consumer Reports? Domestic autos and trucks have failures year after year after year. I don't see or hear of any domestic company trying to fix the quality issues. "Build it so it breaks" seems to be domestic car makers policy. That's why were in this auto bailout mess. We as Americans and consumers have spoken! We won't buy our junk!

2008 Dec 04 09:23 PM

[Bandler:]

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Mar 26 04:54 PM