Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com says Toyota scored No. 1 in brand loyalty among shoppers who used the kbb.com site in the fourth quarter last year. That's the first time since third quarter 2010 that Toyota was tops.
Hyundai recently had held the top slot.
Kbb.com defines brand loyalty as "owners of the brand who are currently shopping the same brand for their next vehicle. This includes data from consumers who view a trade-in page or private party page in addition to a new-car page on Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com."
The shopping site believes the updated 2012 Camry (Toyota calls it "all-new" despite a significant amount of carry-over hardware) has helped.
The big Japanese brand disillusioned buyers because of safety and quality problems, and more recently, supply problems after last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan and, later, flooding in Thailand where auto-electronic components are made.
"Toyota has done a laudable job overcoming those issues, introducing programs such as 'Toyota Care,' while getting its supply back online. The redesign of its flagship, the 2012 Toyota Camry, also helped," says Akshay Anand, market intelligence Web analyst for Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com.
Here's kbb.com's summary of its findings:
"For Q4 2011, Toyota's brand shopping loyalty was at 50.6 %, a 2.7 percentage point jump from Q3 2011, with Hyundai close behind at 50.2 %. Ford, which moved to the third position from No. 5 for Q4 2011, is at 47.1 % brand loyalty. In addition, Kia continues to hold the fourth spot from the previous quarter at 46.5%, while Honda takes the fifth position at 46.4%.
"Hyundai was No. 1 in loyalty for the past two quarters thanks to its strong redesigns, attractive value and the struggles of the Japanese brands with safety perception and supply issues....
"After a brief dip, Honda jumped back into the top five with Subaru falling to No. 6 in Q4 2011 from No. 3 in the previous quarter. Honda's reappearance among the top five can be attributed to the pushed-up Civic refresh, the new CR-V redesign and resolved supply problems.
"Piggybacking on Toyota's success, Lexus is represented as the top luxury brand on the brand loyalty list at position eight, with Audi at No. 9, followed by Mercedes-Benz in the eleventh position."
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