Honda and Ford lead in customer retention.

Ford (F) and Honda (HMC) owners, more than those of any others, are opting to get another vehicle of the same brand. Both brands topped J.D. Power's latest Customer Retention Study, which was based on 123,601 responses from new-car buyers. In 81,350 of those cases, the car being replaced had also been purchased new by that owner.
Sixty-two percent of Ford and Honda owners remained with those brands, while Kia (KIMTF.PK) was the most improved overall in retention. According to the survey, this year 58 percent purchased another Kia but last year, just 37 percent were repeat buyers of the brand. Mercedes-Benz (DAI) fell by five points, to 59 percent.
The Ford F-Series pickup, Ford Edge crossover, and Ford Fusion sedan drive strong customer retention for Ford, says Power, while the Accord, CR-V, and Pilot are among the strongest Honda models with strong retention.
Ford owners are even more likely than Honda owners to perceive their vehicle as fun to drive or as having good styling, which Power says has become increasingly important.
Resale value has actually become less important to shoppers; as a reason to stay loyal to a brand, as a factor, it was down ten percentage points just from 2009 -- perhaps an indication that recession worries are easing.
Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive product research at J.D. Power and Associates, said in a release with the results:
Now that economic and market conditions have improved somewhat, vehicle owners are increasingly citing emotional, rather than practical, reasons for staying with their vehicle brand or switching to a different one.
Hyundai (HYMLF.PK), Lexus, and Toyota (TOT) -- all with a 60-percent retention rate -- follow Ford and Honda. Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Subaru (SBUOF.PK) were also among the brands with a strong rate of retention well above the industry average of 48 percent.
Among major brands, Saab has just a four-percent retention rate, while Jaguar, Dodge (PD), Chrysler, and Scion rounded up the bottom of the list, all with 25 percent or lower retention.
J.D. Power says retention overall has improved slightly from last year; 16 of the 34 brands in the survey have improved retention from 2009, while 14 have declined or remained the same.
Retention of domestic brands rose very slightly this year, but Power points out that 69 percent of those who trade in a vehicle from a domestic brand get another domestic-brand vehicle. For import owners, 90 percent purchased another import.

Read More

2012 ML-Class Spied.

The upcoming Mercedes Benz ML-Class has been spotted testing in the wild, and with it comes a lot of speculation for the SUV. It appears to be a cross between a G-Class and an R-Class, and the company has already said that the ML-Class will be focusing more on efficiency instead of performance.

Due sometime in mid-2011, there are yet to be any concrete details leaked about the new car. All of the speculation has so far been based on the previous spy shots of the vehicle. There are even some reports that hint at an ML-Class powered by a hybrid diesel and electric power train. Of course, there’s the ML450 Hybrid that’s expected to be launched sometime in 2011 as well, featuring a gasoline electric hybrid power source.
The Euro ML models are slated to get 204-horsepower 2.2L four-cylinder engines, with planned V6 gasoline engines also said to be in the works. There will also likely be an AMG variant that carries a 5.5L twin-turbo direct-injection V8 that should be good for 570hp at the very least.
The leading consumer 4×4 in the entire Mercedes-Benz lineup should be officially unveiled by the time the 2011 Geneva Show comes around in March. Whether we’ll also see a reported plug-in hybrid version of the ML450 Hybrid is another question.

Read More

BMW sales figures rises.

Luxury car major BMW has managed to post great sales figures across the globe this year and is very upbeat about its success. The company has its presence across the globe with 24 production houses in 13 countries and sales network in 140 countries.

BMW has tasted this super success after a long time with a tremendous dedicated team of committed professionals.
Sales volume of approximately 1.29 million automobiles is tremendous, and over 87,000 motorcycles for the 2009 financial year, has blown the competitors apart. Euro 50.68 billion was the final revenue of BMW.
Last year on Dec 31 the company had appointed 96,000 associates. The company credits its wonderful value chain for this and how long-term thinking and relationship building has helped strengthen their network.
Mercedes Benz last year, lost its number one position to BMW. In the Indian markets also BMW has been doing quite well and have beaten the competitor Benz in the last 11 months of the year by selling 5,345 units

Read More

Tata Motors Offers 4 year warranty on Nano.

Tata Motors will offer a four-year manufacturers warranty on Nano to boost customers' confidence as the sales of the world's cheapest car sputtered to just 509 units in November.

The auto major will offer the warranty for four years or 60,000 km, (whichever is earlier), to existing and new owners of the Nano, the company said in a statement. "The new buyers have the option of a comprehensive maintenance contract at Rs 99 a month."
The automaker was previously offering a warranty for 18 months or 24,000 km, with no maintenance on the car which cost Rs 1.23 lakh for the base model. The base model is now priced at Rs 1.37 lakh (ex showroom Delhi).
A couple of spontaneous fires, lack of easy finance to purchase the cars and rising prices have hurt sales of the Nano, which was launched as a one-lakh car for the people wanting to upgrade from a two-wheeler. The company said it sold more than 71,000 Nano cars since July 2009.
Analysts feel fire-catching incidents have raised safety issues in the minds of consumers. "The company should have introduced a scheme, a repurchase guarantee which will build confidence among the new customers," said an analyst at a Mumbai-based brokerage firm, not wanting to be identified. The company investigated the incidents and said that there were not any manufacturing defects in the car but offered additional protection in the exhaust and electrical systems.
Tata Motors attributed the decline in sales to its inaccessibility to reach smaller towns. These new schemes will help attract the first time buyers and get an emotional connect' with the customers, said a senior official of the company. "For a first time buyer, a car is a significant purchase decision and these schemes will increase affordability of the car." The company is setting up special Nano access points for customers in the hinterlands to experience and test-drive the car. Through these reach-out initiatives, coupled with customer benefits, Tata Motors will cover the entire country with open sales by March 2011.
On Wednesday, the company told its vendors that it will increase production of the Nano, hoping to restore confidence among the vendors. Nano vendors, concerned over falling sales and a cut in production, met the automobile major's top brass in Mumbai. Faced with huge pressure on margins, exclusive vendors of Nano are diverting production to other manufacturers as the domestic car market has been growing at a rate of 25-30%.

Read More

The new Kia Picanto City 2011.

Kia will replace the Picanto city car in spring 2011 - and these are the first pictures of the new 2011 small car.
The production Picanto will be shown at the Geneva motor show in March, with European sales slated to begin soon after 'from late spring 2011.' No word on if and when it will come ot the region - but with downsizing becoming fashionable we think it's likely.
The new Picanto: the latest European Kia
It's yet another design from Kia's European styling studio in Germany led by ex-Audi man Peter Schreyer.
This time a three-door will be sold alongside the five-door Picanto. The more practical one arrives first, in late spring 2011 while the three-door model arrives in time for summer.
The new Picanto will again be built in Korea, not Hyundai-Kia's Euro factory in eastern Europe.
The tech story of the new 2011 Picanto
The new city car will offer a 1.0 or 1.2 petrol for Europe - we'll probably get the 1.2 here.
The blurb claims the new Picanto exudes 'self confidence, solidity and maturity', but we'd caution that it'll have to live up to the hope of these first design sketches. All too often we've seen promising doodles dilute into routine humdrum.
Still, these first pictures of the new 2011 Picanto show a pert city car with sharp creases and a Ford-alike gaping lower grille.
Written by By Tim Pollard

Read More