Toyota leads the automotive industry in retaining the highest percentage of new-vehicle purchasers for a second consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Customer Retention Study released recently. Now in its fifth year, the study measures the percentage of new-vehicle buyers and lessees who replace a previously purchased new vehicle with another from the same nameplate. Improving by nearly one percentage point from 2006, Toyota (64.6%) leads the customer retention rankings, followed by Lexus (63.0%) and Honda (62.8%). Each brand achieves the same rank position in 2007 as in 2006. Customer retention rates have remained stable in the industry since 2003 at approximately 49 percent. However, individual nameplates have incurred substantial gains and losses within the past five years. Most notable are Suzuki, which improves by 19 percentage points, and Mazda, up 9 percentage points since 2003. The 2007 Customer Retention Study is based on responses from 169,017 new-vehicle buyers and lessees, of which 101,860 replaced a vehicle that was previously acquired new.
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