Toyota Tops Retention Study

Toyota has come out on top in J.D. Power & Associates’ annual Customer Retention Study,
which tallies new-vehicle buyers who choose a new vehicle from the same brand as their
previous one. Power found that, industrywide, customer retention dropped slightly from 49.6
percent in 2005 to 47.9 percent in 2006. Toyota scored a 63.9 percent retention rate.
Cadillac ranked highest among American brands and sixth overall, with a 55.5 percent
retention rate. Chevrolet was seventh, with a 55.3 percent retention rate. High loyalty
among Chevy pickup truck owners was cited as a factor. More than 138,000 new-vehicle
customers were surveyed, of which 82,274 replaced a vehicle that they had bought new.