Lexus might not trouble Honda, Ford and Chevrolet in the sales charts, but ask a dealer which brand they’d rather sell and it’s Toyota’s luxury brand they’ll namecheck.
Lexus was rated as the most likeable brand in the summer 2021 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Dealer Attitude Survey, while second spot went to Toyota. Lexus is no stranger to the top of the league table, having previously been ranked first in the winter 2021 and summer 2020 surveys.
This rounds out a great year for Lexus, which has weathered the semiconductor shortage storm better than some rivals and outsold its German rivals in the third quarter of 2021. Lexus shifted 81,000 cars in the three months to September, compared with 75,600 for BMW and 55,000 for Mercedes.
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Third place in the NADA summer 2021 poll went to Honda, while Subaru took fourth spot and Porsche was fifth. The same five brands also filled all five spots in the winter 2020 survey, but on that occasion Subaru was ranked third, Porsche was fourth and Honda was fifth.
According to a report in Automotive News the bottom half of the summer 2021 top 10 was occupied by BMW, Kia, Audi, Acura and Mazda. BMW climbed from eighth to sixth spot, Kia fell one place to seventh, and Audi gained a place to take eighth in the latest poll. There was bad news for Mercedes and Volvo, though. Both featured in the winter 2020 top 10, but were nowhere to be seen in the summer survey.
NADA launched the Dealer Attitude Survey in 1985 to capture dealers’ opinions on key industry issues affecting dealers’ relationships with their manufacturers. NADA refers to it as a ‘report card’ to manufacturers, with the anonymous nature of the report meaning dealers can be honest in their assessments without fear of reprisals.