crappy cars + hybrid = crappy hybrid cars.
Let me know when they stop making POS vehicles and maybe i'll buy American again
It takes year for perception to change. It used to be every *** car was considered crappy or junk. Ford is making a much better product now and hopefully time will change peoples perceptions.
As a Toyota owner, I'll be taking a long look at American cars when I'm in the market for a replacement.
Study: Domestic Brands Score Highest in Consumer RatingsNovember 25, 2008
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Though the Big 3 are scrambling to find support from Capitol Hill to stay afloat, results of a recent study offered a bit a good news for domestic automakers.
According to Biz360, a media and market solutions provider, consumers are expressing more positive comments toward American brands than for Japanese automakers.
Basically, the company gathered roughly 300,000 online opinions about midsize cars from Ford, Chevrolet, Honda and Toyota. The data was pulled from such sites such as Auto Mall USA, Edmunds.com, IntelliChoice.com and Yahoo Autos from Oct. 31, 2007 through Nov. 1, 2008.
Interestingly enough, the company discovered that Ford and Chevrolet are ahead of their Japanese counterparts when it comes to consumer perception.
"With the national spotlight focused on the fortunes of U.S. auto makers, we were interested in looking at consumer feedback of the most popular brands in the midsize car category," said Stephen Foster, senior director of analyst services at Biz360. "The results of the analysis are encouraging for these domestic brands.
"They indicate that certain American cars brands are considered superior to equivalent Japanese brands by consumers when they discuss the key attributes of performance, comfort and exterior styling," Foster added.
More specifically, officials noted that Chevrolet (63.25), along with Ford (62.11), scored higher than Honda (58.45) and Toyota (60.02) on Biz360's "Net Advocacy" rating.
Biz360 calculated Net Advocacy scores by taking positive comments about a brand and then subtracting the negative comments. These are weighted by the impact of the comments' source.
Moreover, the company found that consumers expressed a higher percentage of negative comments about Honda and Toyota than Ford or Chevrolet.
Toyota, in particular, received 16 percent more in terms of unfavorable remarks than the overall average of all four brands, according to Biz360.
Moving on, the study also examined the 10 vehicle attributes and features that consumers were most likely to have a strong opinion about. According to the company, these included performance, comfort, exterior styling, general opinions, fuel economy, safety, interior design, value, quality and technology.
Biz360 found that discussions regarding performance, comfort, exterior styling and "general opinions" represented 75 percent of online comments. Ford and Chevrolet performed better than their foreign rivals in these key segments.
For instance, Ford was No. 1, and thus rated better the other three brands, in the categories of comfort, general comments and exterior styling. Chevrolet, meanwhile, was rated the highest in performance, followed by Ford at No. 2.
In fact, when all 10 categories are considered, Ford and Chevrolet were considered more favorably by consumers on more product attributes than Toyota and Honda, analysts highlighted.
"Technology has changed the buying landscape forever. Consumers now have the tools to be more vocal and influential than ever before. Whether satisfied or not with a product, they can reach out and communicate their opinions to a world of other consumers. And whether we like it or not, consumers are listening and are influenced by those heartfelt opinions expressed by their peers," explained Brad Brodigan, chief executive officer of Biz360.
"In order to make smart business decisions, it is essential that marketers embrace new tools to understand and interpret the new online consumer dialogue that is happening around them," he went on to indicate.
For more information, visit www.biz360.com.
LINK
as an added bonus, you get immediate street cred with all your thug, scumbag friends.
My buddy had his Titan crew cab (do not remember if it was SE or what) for about 4 months and hated it. When he first bought it he was trying to convince me that it was so much better than my F-150. I rode in it and the ride was hideous. There was nothing he could point out on the Titan that was really 'better' than my F-150 from what I can tell. Like I said, 4 months later he traded it in for a car because it was so bad and he hated it so much. Maybe they are different years?
