Honda, Mercedes Most Respected Car Brands
A poll from Harris Interactive attempts to show what people really think about automakers' reputations.
Honda and Mercedes-Benz are the most respected car brands in America -- the former among mainstream manufacturers, the latter among luxury badges -- according to the latest poll from research company Harris Interactive. Of all luxury automakers, Mercedes came out on top for the second year in a row, followed by BMW, Lexus, Cadillac, Acura and Infiniti. Audi, which has been seeing month-over-month sales increases for more than a year, finished last.
For nonluxury automakers, Honda was ranked first, followed closely by Toyota -- this, despite less-than-stellar opinions of the new Civic and Toyota's massive recent recalls. The other automakers, in order, were Ford, Nissan, Chevrolet, Subaru, Hyundai and Volkswagen.
Harris, which asked more than 38,000 people how they favored certain brands, is not like the more popular surveys from J.D. Power and Associates, which also track customer opinion regarding automakers and specific car models. Harris, which has been conducting surveys since 1989, did not say what its rankings actually mean, nor did it divulge any sample questions or describe the format of the surveys, though it did say the line of questioning hinged "on key measures of brand health -- including how well the public knows a brand, how positively they think of the brand and their consideration to do business with ... a brand."
What do you think of these automakers, and do they really deserve to be recognized in this order? What about all the other automakers that aren't on here? We've got plenty of opinions, so tell us.
[Source: Harris Interactive]
how do you respect an inanimate object?
I know allot of people who own mercedes and they all stay in the shop and if you think American made autos are expensive to fix, go pay for a simple tune up on an MB. you will part iwth a grand or better to put a set of plugs in one.
once again people purchase with their emotions rather than look at the big picture. But that is their business. I wished I ownd an MB dealership and could get rich pushing a mediocre product.
When I met my wife I used to tease her about driving a rice burner. I used to criticize her for driving a foreign piece of crap. I only had owned GM's and Ford's previously.
When I am wrong, I admit I'm wrong. She never had any problems with that Honda and drove it to over 250,000 before we sold it. As a matter of fact, I had more mechanical problems with my American made vehicles.
We have now owned Honda's for the last 22 years. We drove a 1994 Honda Civic for 277,000 miles before selling it to a coworker about 3 years ago. They are still driving it as a commuter car.
Our current 1999 Civic, which we bought used, got our daughter through college. We assumed it back after she bought a new Civic. It now has 264,000 miles and is still going strong.
You might pay a little more for Honda, but if you want a car that lasts longer with fewer issues than check out a Honda. You got this former GM and Ford guy convinced.
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