Roy Morgan Research has recently released details of its survey of the intentions of car buyers in Australia i.e. the cars they are intending to buy and when.
The results are interesting and show that brand loyalty is strong with a number of manufacturers, for example 64% of those Volkwagen owners who said they were planning on buying a new car within 4 years, said they would be buying another Volkswagen.
This puts VW at the top of the ‘brand loyalty’ list, overtaking previous winner Subaru. Ford and Holden are in the top 10, but Hyundai and Nissan also scored well, with Hyundai taking 4th spot. Holden has slipped down the rankings and is now below Mazda in the survey results. At the luxury end of town, BMW has a clear lead on its rivals Mercedes and Audi.
What is perhaps surprising is the relative health of the new car market in Australia, amid all the economic doom and gloom, as explained by Roy Morgan’s Industry Communications Director Norman Morris:
“Both long and short term new car buying intentions were down in June, in line with both the Roy Morgan Consumer & Business confidence ratings, with both measures potentially impacted by Julia Gillard’s carbon tax announcement. However, despite this marginal decline in confidence and car buying intentions, more Australians purchased a new car in June than ever before, and 2012 remains on track for a record result.”
