Domestic carmakers continue to fight a negative-perception battle born during the Great Malaise. That was a time when shiny new Pintos dropped their engines on the New Jersey Turnpike, when five variations of the Chevy Nova fought an inter-brand battle for the title of alpha shitbox, and when executives were too busy…
Polk It To Ya, Detroit! Foreign Automakers Receive 53% Of Non-Fleet…
Industry number-crunchers RL Polk released the latest vehicle registration data on year-to-date new cars excluding fleet sales, and it's not a good number if you're an automaker from Metro Detroit. Through the month of May, 52.9% of new vehicles registered by purchasers were import brands, up from 49% a year earlier.…
The Buzz Bin: Dodge Caliber Overhyped?
New survey results from KBB and Harris interactive show new-car shoppers seem to think the "anything but cute" Dodge Caliber is being hyped to death (it was the fairy
Get a Room, You Two: Cadillac Battles Lexus Atop Satisfaction Survey…
Despite a truly amazing result buried in the press release for AutoPacific's latest customer-satisfaction survey — that the Hyundai Azera unexpectedly nailed top-car honors — the battle between GM and Toyota still pulled top billing. The Detroit-based consultancy found that among buyers of new luxury cars, Cadillac is …
Domestics Top New-Car Buzz Survey
Nothing gets our geek-freak on like survey results, filtered and cross-referenced by demographic group. Now, new such data-on-blogger action is out from Harris Interactive and Kelley Blue Book, under the banner of the AutoVIBES Demographics series of reports. (Is it getting warm in here?) One segment, an analysis of…
First-Time Car Buyers to Traditional Media: Drop Dead
It's what we've known for years: The kids totally dig the online. A recent study by those people-watchers over at The Polk Center for Automotive Studies found very few first-time car buyers use traditional media when shopping for a car. Instead, the greatest percentage consider the interweb their most important…
You Are There: Inside a Ford Edge Focus Group
Automakers spend millions on qualitative market research, but few outside the industry really know what goes on inside one of their secretive new-model focus groups (sorry, automotive review sessions). Only those who've made it past the byzantine approval process know for sure. According to one reader, stories of…
