Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota have a commanding lead in car brand awareness, as determined from interviewing car owners for the 2012 Car Brand Perception Survey.

In conducting our random, nationwide perception survey, we ask car owners to name the automotive brands they are aware of--this determines our baseline. By dividing the total number of times that a particular make was mentioned as an exemplar across seven car-buying factors by awareness, we can compensate for awareness in calculating the brand perception score. This ensures every brand has an equal chance of leading a category, not just the best-selling or most well-known brands. While not the focus of the survey, looking at just awareness does provide insight into the industry.

The leaders this year mirror the rank order from 2011, although the scores have edged up slightly. Ford (87 percent), Chevrolet (76 percent), and Toyota (70 percent) have a clear advantage over other brands. With 57-percent awareness, Honda fits between the three top-ranked brands and those that form a third tier with scores in the 40s.

In the middle of the pack, we see that Chrysler and Dodge have made significant advances, climbing six and 12 percentage points, respectively. The company’s reinvigorated product line and aggressive marketing seems to be working, along with recurring coverage in national media regarding restructuring efforts.

Similar gains were made by many other brands, as well. BMW, Hyundai, GMC, and Volkswagen all improved by at least 10 points.

We’ve seen that as perception index scores have dropped almost universally, the leaders were brought closer to the mid-pack brands. This suggests that consumers see fewer brands dominating car-buying factors even if the companies are know for safety, quality, or performance. Instead, consumers are recognizing that many brands excel in the seven factors explored in the survey, and consequently, automakers face a tougher struggle to stand out.

In the chart below, we list those brands whose awareness was 30 percent or greater in the latest survey.

Prestige brands naturally had a higher awareness among households with a yearly income over $50,000, such as BMW, Cadillac, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo. However, some mainstream brands also saw significantly higher awareness among those more affluent households, including Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

Awareness is the first step toward sales. For another perspective, we also analyzed brand loyalty data from the same survey.

See the 2012 Car Brand Perception Survey for further findings.

For that annual survey, the Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a random, nationwide telephone survey of 2,045 adults from Dec. 1-5, 2011, and collected data from 1,702 adults in households that had at least one car.