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Filed under: Car Buying, Classics, Etc., Audi, Buick, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Jeep, Nissan, Porsche, Volkswagen

The world would be considerably less entertaining if we could all predict the future. Even so, the classic car gurus at Hagerty Insurance have cast a few chicken bones in an attempt to figure out which vehicles produced today might eventually turn collectible.

The company restricted entrants to hardware with a price tag of less than $100,000, so the list isn't populated with too many wild exotics. While vehicles like the Nissan GT-R Black Edition, Ford Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca Edition, Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Porsche 911 are low-hanging fruit, the list also featured a few surprises.

For starters, it begins with none other than the mighty Buick Regal GS. Hagerty says the vehicle is a win because it's the first Buick with a manual transmission since the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. The Fiat 500 Abarth also makes an appearance alongside an even hotter hatch, the Volkswagen Golf R. Of course, we're simply thrilled to see the sinister Audi TT RS make a showing. Hit the jump for the full list or view each vehicle in our gallery above.

Continue reading Hagerty predicts this year's future classics

Hagerty predicts this year's future classics originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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 If you're a classic car nut, you've probably heard of Hagerty; the company is a leader in classic-car insurance and hosts the world's largest database of classic cars. Each year, the company publishes its Hagerty Hot List, a list...

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.

Awareness
Brand	2012 (%)	2011 (%)
Ford	87	85
Chevrolet	76	75
Toyota	70	68
Honda	57	52
Chrysler	45	39
Dodge	43	31
Cadillac	38	32
Mercedes-Benz	36	30
Nissan	36	29
Hyundai	35	25
GMC	33	23
Buick	32	28
Lexus	31	23
Kia	31	22
Volvo	30	21
Volkswagen	30	19

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.

Consumer Reports’ 2012 Car Brand Perception Survey reveals how consumers rank car brands across seven purchase-influencing factors, such as safety, quality, and value. And the research also sheds light on what brands consumers are likely to purchase from for their next new car. Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet lead purchase intent, though Honda has a higher brand loyalty rate than its domestic competitors.

These four makes dominate among those that consumers are most likely to purchase the next time they shop for a new car. Collectively, they were singled out by more than one-half of consumers who participated in this survey.

Gender differences had men more likely to focus on truck-purveyors Ford (19 vs 14 percent women) and Chevrolet (15 vs 11 percent women). Women had a stronger preference for Toyota (16 vs 12 percent men), a brand whose sales mix heavily favors cars and crossovers over rugged trucks.

Outside of these four brands, all others counted 3 percent or less in purchase intent, revealing a major gap between the leaders and other brands.

Looking year over year, the rates are quite consistent.

Likely to purchase
Brand	2012 (%)	2011 (%)
Ford	16	18
Toyota	14	12
Chevrolet	13	13
Honda	9	10
Dodge	3	3
Nissan	3	4
BMW	3	2
Subaru	3	2
Buick	3	3
GMC	2	2
Hyundai	2	3
Cadillac	2	1

Strong purchase-intent performance is aided by a high level of brand loyalty.

Each year, we also analyze the purchase intent among the most popular vehicles in the survey. Again, we find Toyota, Honda, Chevrolet, and Ford each with more than a 50-percent brand loyalty rating. All four brands remained relatively consistent, compared against last year, with just incremental adjustments.

Making a bigger move, Dodge loyalty fell by one fifth, with just 28 percent currently declaring intent to remain loyal. The shift is surprising, as we noted last year that Dodge had moved from 32 percent to 35 percent, surmising that its revitalized product line may have been a chief contributor. It is clear that something is not resonating as well with Dodge owners now. Given the tough economy, and increased interest in fuel economy, the lack of small, efficient vehicles in its product portfolio may be impacting Dodge loyalty. Perhaps the upcoming Dart and other Fiat-aided products can address that in the future.

Another brand to note: Volkswagen has seen its purchase intent double year over year, but it still comes in at just under 2 percent. While the results mark progress, this indicator suggests VW has a ways to go to be on the short list for American shoppers in order to fulfill its ambitious sales projections.

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 survey data from 1,702 adults in households that had at least one car.

The people have spoken: Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chevrolet excel over other brands in the minds of adult car owners, though the brand’s advantages are less this year than in the past. These are among the findings of the 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

The survey scores reflect how consumers perceive each brand in seven categories: safety, quality, value, performance, environmentally friendly/green, design/style, and technology/innovation. Combining those factors gives us the total brand-perception score, as shown in the chart below. While the scores reflect a brand’s overall image in consumers’ minds, they do not represent the actual qualities of any brand’s vehicles.

It used to be that Toyota ruled over all brands, with a greater lead over mid-pack brands due to being identified as a leader in multiple categories. This year, the overall score for Toyota and second-place Ford are lower than in years past, though they remain distinguished as the only brands with triple-digit results.

The latest survey results show consumers are identifying with more brands than before, making it harder for most brands to stand out from the competition. It also signals that car buyers may be seeing the merits in more brands, rather than so closely identifying single brands as owning a given category.

Top 20 Car Brands by Perception

Best overall
Brand	Score
Toyota	131
Ford	121
Honda	94
Chevrolet	92
Mercedes-Benz	84
BMW	69
Volvo	67
Cadillac	63
Lexus	54
Tesla	51
Smart	47
Acura	47
Audi	42
Subaru	41
Nissan	40
GMC	38
Dodge	37
Buick	36
Hyundai	34
Volkswagen	31

Toyota and Ford still rule the list by enviable margins, though the midpack performers see few points separating brands.

With consumers becoming more aware of electric cars, we added small, specialty companies Fisker and Tesla to our latest survey; they scored better than many established brands. Although awareness of those brands is relatively low compared with more well-known automakers, respondents who were familiar with them held Fisker and Tesla in high regard for certain categories. Tesla even scored high enough to make the top 10.

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

See our complete story on the 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey to see how the brands measured up in the seven categories, how they compare against last year’s results, and which brands remain the lowest ranked.