Honda Cars : Consumers see fewer differences among car brands | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

In our new survey, Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet continue to lead in overall perception, but by a slimmer margin

The perceived difference between the top car brands and the challengers is shrinking. That's the finding of the 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet, which have been perennial leaders in the survey, maintained their top positions but have seen the points gap decrease. In fact, most of the top brands saw double-digit drops in their total scores. Smaller companies have benefited from this shift, illustrated by the small electric-car builder, Tesla, breaking into the top 10.

The survey scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: safety, quality, value, performance, environmentally friendly/green, design/style, and technology/innovation. Combining those factors gives us the total brand-perception score. While the scores reflect a brand's image in consumers' minds, they do not reflect the actual qualities of any brand's vehicles.Toyota continues to dominate in brand perception, although it slipped a significant 17 points, compared with last year's survey results. Other top brands—Ford, Honda, and BMW—saw their scores drop more than 20 points. The two leading General Motors brands, Cadillac and Chevrolet, did relatively better with only single-digit decreases. Dramatic events in the automotive industry seem to be affecting how consumers view auto brands. Erratic gasoline prices and a struggling economy have pushed consumers to prize low operating costs and good reliability. With safety a strong interest among car owners, we saw Toyota's perception score drop substantially after its widespread recalls of a couple years ago, a decrease from which it still has not fully recovered. Many Japanese manufacturers were challenged to maintain adequate production following the earthquake and tsunami disaster of last year. Volvo was bought by Chinese automaker Geely in mid-2010. And Saab has faltered over the last few months as it has struggled in vain to ward off bankruptcy.

With consumers becoming more aware of electric cars, Fisker and Tesla, small producers that were added to our latest survey, scored better than many well-established brands. Although awareness of those brands is relatively low compared with that of more established companies, respondents who were familiar with them held Fisker and Tesla in high regard for certain categories.In the survey we also asked how important each factor was to the respondents in making a car purchase. As in past years, safety was the top consideration, followed by quality, value, performance, environmental friendliness, design and style, and technology and innovation.

Overall, the car-brand leaders do not stand out from the pack the way they did only a couple years ago, and perceptions for the individual factors reveal significant changes. In the subsequent pages, we'll dig into the findings and explore the implications.

Best and worst in brand perception
The chart below shows the overall scores for the top and bottom 10 brands, according to the Consumer Reports 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey. Overall scores are an aggregate, reflecting a brand's total perception level across seven areas. They are rounded to the nearest whole number. The top five brands in each area are listed below. The categories are listed in rank order of importance to consumers.ConsumerReports.org has a variety of tools that can help you quickly and efficiently narrow down your car-buying choices, based on real-world test results, reliability data, owner-cost estimates, and other ratings. In addition, Cars Best Deals Plus, our premium online offering, gives you access to CR's Bottom Line Prices, which help you get the best deal on a new car, detailed test-track reports from our engineers, and more detailed reliability findings that let you see the specific types of problems subscribers are experiencing.

How the scores were calculatedThe Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a random, nationwide telephone survey of 2,045 adults from Dec. 1-5, 2011, and collected survey data from 1,702 adults in households that had at least one car.

Overall brand perception is an index calculated as the total number of times that a particular make was mentioned as exemplary across all seven categories, divided by the total unaided awareness of the brand. (Interview subjects were asked what brands exemplified the traits, instead of being read a list of brands.) That approach compensates for awareness level, ensuring that every brand has an equal chance of leading a category, not just the best-selling or most well-known brands.Category scores reflect the number of times that the particular make was mentioned as an exemplar of the particular attribute, again corrected for awareness.

Important factors in buying a new car
This list ranks the seven key factors by how important they are to consumers when buying a new car. The percentage is based on the number of respondents who said the factor was among their top three priorities. For comparison, we've included last year's figures, though no factor had a significant year-to-year shift.

While the overall order remains the same, we did see a notable difference between genders. Women considered safety far more important (73 percent versus 57 percent of men), as well as environmental friendliness (32 percent versus 26 percent). Men place more emphasis on design/style (27 percent versus 20 percent of women) and technology/innovation (21 percent versus 14 percent).

Safety
The leading brands in overall perception typically excel in multiple categories. Volvo, however, has maintained a top-10 spot for years by virtue of its safety reputation alone. This year, the brand took a dramatic 21 percentage point drop in this factor, from last year's 70 to 49 percent. If that trend continues, it could drop Volvo out of the overall top 10 in future years and into the second tier.Several other brands are down a few points this year, with Subaru notably dropping from 17 to 10 percent, falling from the list of top five brands on this dimension. Toyota had taken a hit amid its large-scale recalls a couple years ago. But in the latest results, it has remained consistent at 13 percent, year over year, which elevated it to third place because of the other brands' decreases.What we have seen in the safety category exemplifies a trend observed with other factors—this year, consumers are identifying more brands as leaders, rather than just a select few.

Quality
As in other areas, we see scores edging downward in the quality factor, with Toyota, Honda, and Ford now sharing a three-way tie for the top spot and the top brands in general having less of an advantage in perceived leadership. The key story here is Honda losing 6 percentage points, while Toyota holds at 19 percent. We saw similar results in our 2011 Annual Auto Survey, based on subscribers' experiences with 1.3 million vehicles. In that unrelated survey, Honda moved down one position in the brand rank and Toyota held pat. Likewise, Ford dropped 10 positions in our reliability rankings.

For Honda, the perceived quality may also have been influenced by its lackluster new products. There have been several new or redesigned models introduced in recent years, including the Honda Civic, CR-Z, Insight, and Pilot, that didn't measure up to the competition or even to the model it was replacing.Brand perception can be influenced by many things, from professional road tests to marketing. Word-of-mouth from friends and neighbors can be a slower-moving though influential contributor as ownership transitions from the honeymoon phase to the seven-year itch. Honda has been relatively consistent in quality perception, but with these new findings, it becomes a brand to monitor in future reports.

Value
There is little change in the brands considered to be value leaders this year, though again, the percentage points for most of the top brands have edged downward. As the nation's economic challenges continue to linger, value remains a key new-car purchase factor. Consumers naturally want to get the most car for their money. This year's results indicate that few brands offer a distinct advantage in that area.Among the leaders, Ford saw a significant drop this year. It could reflect that the pricey cars it has introduced in the cost-conscious small-car category—the Fiesta and Focus—have taken away some of the value cachet Ford previously held.

Hyundai has long targeted value as a brand virtue; this association continues in our latest survey. The brand has introduced new small cars this past year that build on that reputation, such as the Accent, Elantra, and most recently the Veloster. All three are competitive and compelling in their segments, standing out for their relative refinement and content levels.Small cars do not ensure a perception of strong value. Among the worst performers, earning less than a single percent, are Fiat, Mini, and Smart.

If value is important to you, see Consumer Reports' ratings for Best New-Car Values, which combines our test scores, reliability ratings, and owner-cost estimates to show you which models provide the best bang for the buck.The term "value" can be open to personal interpretation, but it is clear that car buyers are looking to get a good car at a good price. Value-conscious car shoppers can find significant savings on Consumer Reports-recommended vehicles. (See the Best New Car Deals.)

Performance
As in past years, car owners consider BMW to offer the ultimate performance machines. But its score dropped significantly from last year's 27 to only 19. This precipitous drop leaves the German automaker vulnerable to the two American brands known for a legacy of muscle—Ford and Chevrolet.

Ford's score, which has been relatively consistent, could have been buoyed by its iconic, and laudable, Mustang and its expanding range of well-received turbocharged engines. Another brand known for power, Chevrolet saw a minor drop in a year in which much focus was shifted toward fuel efficiency in its marketing.

Even a new 911 wasn't enough to allow Porsche to hold its second-place position. Just off the chart is newcomer Fisker. This prestige brand is just now reaching market with its Karma plug-in hybrid, but it nearly tied with stalwart Porsche.

Toyota's regular appearance in the top rankings signal that consumers consider performance to be more than acceleration and handling. With its clear market dominance in hybrids, Toyota has established a reputation for environmentally friendly vehicles that could be influencing its performance image.

Environmentally Friendly/Green
Toyota again leads the environmentally friendly/green category, most likely driven by the Prius and other hybrids, as well as some creative marketing. The brand did drop 8 percentage points, but it still stands tall among mainstream brands. We expect its strong showing to continue as it adds new variants to its Prius sub-brand.Smart made a surprise showing this year, debuting in the top five despite having no new products or a sizable advertising budget. Its placement does raise the question of how green is truly perceived. The aptly named ForTwo scored just 28 points out of 100 in our comprehensive road test, making it one of the lowest-scoring vehicles we've tested in recent years. While it did return 39 mpg overall in our fuel economy tests, it requires premium fuel, undercutting any potential savings in operating costs. For the money, the Honda Fit is an excellent alternative, with great fuel economy, reliability, and overall test score. It isn't surprising to see Honda again claim the third position in the green rankings, with a solid reputation built on the company's dedication to reduced emissions and thrifty vehicles such as the Accord, Civic, and Fit.

Ford slipped slightly this year, despite introducing the new Fiesta and Focus small cars and backing them with highly visible marketing campaigns that included social media efforts and television show placements.Somewhat surprising, however, is that after a year of seemingly endless headlines espousing the electrifying virtues of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, those brands didn't spring ahead in this factor. Chevrolet remained consistent with 12 percent, an apparent accomplishment given the trends in this year's survey. Nissan inched up about 2 percentage points, rounding to 8 percent.Another unexpected result is that Hyundai increased just two-tenths of a percentage point, despite spreading word of its thrifty Sonata sedan—and hybrid version—as well as its new Accent and Elantra small cars. Further, official government figures continue to show Hyundai to be a true leader with its average fleet fuel economy.

Design/Style
A commonly held misconception is that car shoppers buy based on styling. Our surveys repeatedly show that more practical considerations trump aesthetics. Still, in the end, no one wants to make payments on a vehicle that they become bored with down the road. This year, Cadillac shined above all others in car-owner perceptions. For Cadillac, the design consistency across its portfolio registers strongly. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have also shown strong consistency, with the carefully penned lines of their vehicles also standing out. Audi, which may have one of the most focused design executions of today's brands, just missed the top five by a fraction of a point, trailing Chevrolet.

Toyota has continued its decline. In 2010, it had 17 percent, while it now registers just 9 percent. During that time, the importance of design/style in purchase decisions has slid slightly from 25 percent to 24 this year.

Technology/Innovation
Among the seven factors tracked in the annual brand-perception survey, technology/innovation is the least valued by car owners and it is also the least dynamic. The results have proven quite consistent year over year, with the most notable shift for 2012 being that the category itself is gaining prominence in the industry.

Each of the top brands in this area offers sophisticated infotainment systems, expanding beyond high-quality audio to offer smart-phone integration and enhanced navigation systems. All have also been safety innovators; from Lexus integrating smart-throttle brake override technology to Ford offering seat-belt air bags. Further, each also offers hybrid, turbocharged, and/or diesel powertrains, tackling the technology challenge on multiple fronts.

While they appear well established, the technology leaders have newcomer Tesla nipping at their heels, with 13 percent. The California-based automotive start-up established its electric-car reputation with a sporty Roadster, and it is gaining prominence as a powertrain partner with Toyota. Soon, the company will offer a midsized electric sedan called the Model S, which may further elevate its brand awareness and prominence.

Source;
http://www.consumerreports.org/content/cro/en/cars/best-car-brands-consumer-perception-consumer-reports.html

Honda Cars : Honda Fit is best used car, says Consumer Reports | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Yonkers, New York – The Honda Fit remains the best overall value among used vehicles, according to Consumer Reports. The Fit was not only the best value among small cars, but was tops among some 200 different vehicles analyzed.

“A low price doesn’t necessarily make a car a good value,” said Rik Paul, automotive editor at Consumer Reports. “A cheap vehicle can wind up costing you more money over time, or can be disappointing down the road. We think real value is what you get for your money.”

Consumer Reports used performance, reliability and ownership cost data to calculate value scores for the vehicles, which ranged from small cars to luxury sedans. Scores were calculated based on the five-year owner cost for each vehicle, along with the magazine’s road test score and predicted reliability. The five-year owner cost includes depreciation, fuel costs, insurance premiums, interest on financing, maintenance and repairs, and sales tax, with depreciation being the largest owner-cost factor. A car has a better value rating if it performs well in road tests and reliability ratings, and if it costs less to own over time.

Overwhelmingly, the best values were from Japanese automakers, including most of the top models in each category. Of the 48 “best values” in the list, 34 are from Japanese brands, along with six European (mostly from Volkswagen), five from American ones (mostly Ford), and three from South Korean brands.

Overall, the report found that small cars and family sedans provide the best value. In the small-car category, most vehicles scored at least twice as high as the average model, and higher than any other model in Consumer Reports’ analysis. The magazine gave the best value score to the Honda Fit, and the worst to the Chevrolet Cruze 1LT, but said that the Cruze still ranked close to the overall average for value among all vehicles.

The four-cylinder Nissan Altima led the family sedan category, followed by the four-cylinder Kia Optima, Subaru Legacy, Ford Fusion Hybrid and four-cylinder Honda Accord. As with small cars, the lowest-rated sedans still have value scores that are slightly better than average.

Larger and luxury vehicles were among the worst values overall, with large or luxury sedans and SUVs usually scoring at only about 70 per cent of the average. The best large and midsize SUVs tended to earn about the same value score as the lowest-ranked family sedans. The top-scoring upscale sedan, the Lexus ES 350, did earn a value score almost 1.5 times the average, but its cost per mile was a relatively high US77 cents, with a five-year owner cost that was $11,000 more than the Altima, which dropped its value score slightly below the Nissan. The worst-value upscale and luxury sedan was the Jaguar XJL.

The report found that wagons and small SUVs tend to provide better value than larger SUVs or minivans. Among wagons, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI with manual transmission was the top scorer, offering almost 70 per cent more value than the average car, while the Mazda5 and Subaru Outback had scores almost 1.5 times that of average value.

The top small SUVs were even better values than wagons, with the base four-cylinder Toyota RAV4 taking the top spot, and the Jeep Liberty Sport the “worst value” spot. The RAV4 had a score 84 per cent better than average, followed by the Subaru Forester at 70 per cent. Midsize SUVs are less of a bargain because of their higher purchase price and fuel costs. Among luxury SUVs, only the BMW X3, Acura RDX, Acura MDX, Infiniti EX, and Lexus RX gasoline and hybrid models had above-average value scores. The best-value midsize SUV was the V6 Toyota Highlander Limited, while the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara had the worst value.

Minivans generally get better fuel economy than most midsize or large SUVs and have more space than all but the largest SUVs, and they cost less, but as a class, their sub-par reliability drags them down, the magazine said. The front-wheel drive Toyota Sienna, with the category’s highest reliability rating, is still only rated at “average” reliability.

The report found that hybrids can be relatively good values due to their combination of fuel economy, low depreciation and above-average reliability. As a class, hybrids have an overall value at least 1.5 times the average model, and on average cost about 65 cents per mile to drive over the first five years.

The full report is available in the magazine’s February issue.

Source;
http://www.autos.ca/general-news/honda-fit-is-best-used-car-says-consumer-reports

Honda Cars : Consumer Reports: Point/counterpoint: Fresh air in new sunroof trends | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Interesting take on things....
Point: More and more automakers are installing large glass roof panels that can’t be opened. If I have a big sunroof letting light in, it makes me want fresh air, too. I’m a big moonroof fan, and initially liked the idea of these larger open roofs.

But after living with several, I’ve found they’re usually too noisy to open on the highway and only really useful on back roads. Plus, if you don’t use the sunshade, they add a lot of heat in the cabin on sunny days, making the air conditioner work harder. Some of these panels-like on the Lincoln MKT and the Volkswagen Passat CC--don’t even open at all. I’d prefer automakers go back to offering smaller, normal, quiet moonroofs.
–Eric Evarts

Counterpoint: I don’t like moonroofs. Sure, they can be an occasional novelty, but I much prefer a lower purchase price, more head room, and reduced risk of problems. Plus, I like a quiet cabin where I can enjoy music or the company of my traveling companions.

For me, the trend of fixed glass tops is welcomed. Exposing more of the outside world can be wonderful on a tree-lined road or even just during balmy weather with fluffy clouds in the sky by day and stars at night. In most vehicles so-equipped, fixed glass benefits the rear passengers, creating a more open cabin feel and enhancing their enjoyment.
–Jeff Bartlett

Source;
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/06/pointcounterpoint-fresh-air-in-new-sunroof-trends.html

Honda Cars : Survey: Honda perceived to be tops in customer, quality commitment | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Among seven major auto brands, consumers consider Honda to be the most committed to customers and to product quality. Ford ranked second, followed by Nissan, Chevrolet, and Toyota, based on a new survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. Hyundai and Chrysler trailed the others by a significant margin.

To see how consumers' perception of a brand's commitment to customers and quality has changed in the wake of Toyota's high-profile safety and image challenges, the Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a telephone survey using a nationally representative sample. More than 1,700 interviews were completed among adults whose household owns at least one vehicle.

Honda truly stands out by this measure, being perceived as having much greater customer and quality commitment than its chief rivals. Key to this accomplishment is that Honda has a reputation for building good vehicles that perform well, are fuel efficient, and have strong reliability histories.

Ford continues its march, with strong showings in several recent Consumer Reports surveys, good overall reliability, and, unlike its domestic peers, continued goodwill among consumers for having taken no federal assistance.

Toyota had a relatively decent showing here, though trailing its chief competitors.

Although Hyundai's newer models have generally performed well in our tests, the brand's challenge still seems to be communicating this to consumers. Less than 50 percent of respondents felt that Hyundai was committed to its customers or quality.

The recent financial troubles, dealer closings, and lack of new product may have been factors in the last-place finish for Chrysler. Currently, to the average consumer, Chrysler has not been showing much commitment of any kind.

The bottom line

As we have written before, perception can differ from reality. When shopping for your next new or used car, do your homework by checking ratings and road tests. You may find that the brands you are considering have changed more rapidly than your perceptions.

Source;

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/05/consumer-reports-survey-honda-perceived-to-be-tops-in-customer-quality-commitment-.html

Honda Cars : What's really behind the Toyota debacle | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Interesting read, a lot of things that I didn't know....
(Fortune) -- At 77, Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota, is still causing trouble for the automaker.

He is being painted, most recently in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, as both the architect of a global expansion that proved ruinous and an enemy of the Toyoda family.

But blaming Okuda for what has gone wrong at Toyota (TM) recently hardly gets to the root cause of the company's problems.

For that, Toyota executives will have to look deeper into themselves. If they are diligent, they will find an anachronistic management structure that has proved inefficient and counterproductive, and could be potentially ruinous.

Toyota is basically organized the same way it was half-a-century ago when it first began selling cars in the U.S. None of its operations are functionally integrated -- and all report back to Japan.

It is a caricature of a chimneyed company with vertical structures and no coordination.
While it may have suited the much smaller company of a generation ago, it no longer does. Toyota has expanded its presence in the U.S. significantly.

Indeed, if Toyota's North American operations were pushed together, the company would resemble one of the Detroit Three, with engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, and sales all housed under one roof. If any of those functions detected, say, a quality problem with an accelerator pedal, it could quickly relay the news and work with the others until a solution was found.

That kind of functional integration is one of the big reasons for the current success at Ford (F, Fortune 500). CEO Alan Mulally holds a meeting on Thursdays at which all of his top managers attend and at which they share information.

At Toyota, by comparison, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, and sales report back to headquarters in Japan. Only there is the information disseminated among regions and functions.

It is an organizational scheme more befitting of a tiny manufacturer from a developing country than a global behemoth with aspirations to dominate the industry.

So when Jim Lentz, the American head of Toyota Motor Sales, testified that he had no power to order the recall of a vehicle, he was merely stating a longstanding fact of life at Toyota. He had neither the necessary information nor the authority to do so.

Executives at other automakers were stunned. As one competitor said, "Jim Lentz saying the American management team had no say in recalls was the thing that surprised me most. There was not a lot of cross divisional communication."

Toyota's archaic management structure has been an issue with its American executives for at least two decades.

According to one insider, action has been delayed in part because of a power struggle that pits the powerful U.S. sales arm against other divisions of the company.

Most recently that friction has been reflected by a dispute over the role of Toyota Motor North America, the New York-based holding company for North American operations.

In an effort to speed integration, a respected executive, Jim Press was moved from his job as head of Toyota Motor Sales to head of Toyota Motor North America.

In September 2006, Press made a presentation to Toyota's corporate board asking that his North American organization be kept informed of quality efforts by strengthening communication with Toyota Motor Sales, Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing, and company headquarters in Japan.

Presciently, Press was worried about safety. He detected a steady rise in Toyota's safety recalls, which, he warned, were denting customer loyalty.

To improve the company's relationship with NHTSA, the government's car safety agency, Press argued for better communication between North America and the company's technical side: "We need faster information flow, and more technical support when hot issues arrive."

Press's plea fell on deaf ears and Press became frustrated. Feeling he had been made into a "window worker," a Japanese term for an older employee with no responsibilities, Press left Toyota to join Chrysler a year later.

Belatedly, Toyota has shifted more power to Toyota Motor North America by appointing a popular executive, Yoshimi Inaba, to oversee both it and Toyota Motor Sales.

Inaba is said to have the ear of Toyota President Akio Toyoda. So far, however, any reforms he has put in place have been overwhelmed by the sudden acceleration recall crisis.

Toyota seems to have learned one lesson from all this: it now moves faster when controversies arise. It halted sales of the Lexus GX 460 within hours after Consumer Reports labeled it a safety risk.

Now it needs to move just as fast to fix its dysfunctional management structure.

Source;
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/14/autos/toyota_management.fortune/