2006 Detroit News Domestic Vehicle Avoider Study (PDF; 463 KB)
Source: J.D. Power and Associates

Key Findings:

• American vehicle avoiders select twice as many avoidance reasons as import avoiders (7 vs. 3.5 reasons).
• Surveying owners of vehicle brands from the U.S., Asia and Europe, JDPA’s syndicated 2006 Vehicle Dependability Study shows that similar vehicle-problem levels occur after three years of ownership for domestics and imports. But respondents to this study are more than three times more likely to avoid domestic brand vehicles due to reliability concerns than they are to avoid imports. This shows that consumer perception is not in line with experience.
• Avoidance due to gas mileage concerns is cited 10 times more often for American vehicles than Asian vehicles (40% vs. 4%). JDPA’s syndicated 2006 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout study supports that American vehicle owners are less satisfied with fuel economy than import owners.
• While gas mileage ranks 6th among the reasons mentioned to avoid American vehicles, it is the 3rd Most Influential reason.
• 23% of American-brand avoiders mention the Big 3’s financial problems. Interestingly, 9% of those avoiding import vehicles do so in support of the Big 3’s financial problems.
• 16% of Asian avoiders and 7% of European avoiders indicate that unionizing assembly plants is a needed improvement.
• American-brand avoiders comprise a younger, more educated, and more affluent demographic than Asian or European avoiders.

Detroit News stories:
+ Changing minds: what Detroit can do to win back car buyers
+ Gaining insight into the heart of the car buyer
+ Closing the resale gap (resale values by brand; PDF 17 KB)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 5th, 2007 at 8:37 am and is filed under Motor vehicles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.