BMW has overtaken Toyota as the world's most valuable car brand, according to an annual industry report.
Millward Brown's report looks at both brand power and financial performance. The report said the car industry as a whole had lost 15 per cent in brand value over the past 12 months due to falling sales and the recession.
"While several brands did well, the central story of the recession was more about which brands declined the least in sales and value," said the report.
BMW's brand was valued at $21.82 billion (£18.97bn), which was down nine per cent on its value last year. Toyota's brand value was rated at $21.77bn (£18.93bn), a fall of 27 per cent on last year.
Honda was rated third ahead of Mercedes, Porsche, Nissan, Ford, VW, Audi and Renault. All of the top 10's brand value was lower than this time last year, apart from Ford, VW and Audi.
The strong performance of VW and Audi was put down to the pair being "viewed as trustworthy brands with style, global distribution, German engineering, and lower prices than prestige makes such as BMW and Mercedes".
Next year, Millward Brown expects to see Hyundai and Kia entering the top 10, while several Chinese manufacturers are also expected to gain in brand value.
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Re: BMW 'most valuable car brand'
originalguv, The top 100 global brands list includes only five car brands: 25. BMW 26. Toyota 46. Honda 53. Mercedes-Benz 65. Porsche Of the top global car brands, listed separately, the above list is followed by Nissan, Ford, VW, Audi and Renault. I just don't buy the fact that BMW, let alone Honda or even Porsche, are more valuable than Volkswagen, Audi or Ford. In particular, Audi is very close to BMW in overall sales and its cars command a price premium that is certainly on a par. VW sales are well ahead of both and rapidly closing-in on Toyota and commands a similar price premium. So, in both cases you'd expect Audi and VW to be closer to BMW, if not ahead. In terms of recent brand image perception studies I've seen, AUdi and VW are also surging ahead while BMW and Toyota are not. So I really don't understand the methodology. When Interbrand produces its own top brands valuation in a few months, I expect that the order will be very different. So, yes, i did read the article in full - while it appears you did not.
Re: BMW 'most valuable car brand'
Well unless I'm mistaken the article points out that they are both in the top 10 (and have increased their brand value).
Re: BMW 'most valuable car brand'
The meaning of kafuffle can be found here
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kafuffle)
Like me, it is of Scots origin hence my spelling of it. It's a slang word, so spelling is informal, secondary to the sound.
I am sorry some appear to have misunderstood the meaning and consequently taken offence. Read as I meant it - disorder, commotion - and in relation to the media storm surrounding the recent recalls, while admittedly informal (this is the Autocar fourm after all), is not, I think, inaccurate.
The survey which is the subject of this original story measures brand value and, presumably, it is this media "kafuffle" which those who made the assessments will have taken into account, not the actual size and nature of the actual recalls. Safety recalls are not rare or unusual; the media coverage surrounding Toyota is. It is not for me to parade the tribulations of other brands, suffice to say others have had bigger, more serious recalls.
That is not to say Toyota - nor I - take our situation lightly.
Let me be very clear; whatever the view of the media coverage or brand surveys, there is no diminution of the seriousness of the core issue, namely the safety and satisfaction of our customers. I believe the evidence for this is to be found in the way the company has put in place comprehensive recall action and revised internal processes. Such revisions are free and open admission that we did not do everything as well as we might have in the past.
But this is no revelation for Toyota. The company's core philosophy of Kaisen (continuous improvement) requires continual recognition that you can always do things better.