The 'Brand Loyalty' displayed by car owners is staggering. In the past most British manufacturers went through periods of producing awful cars and yet owners went back time and time again to trade in their old model.
There is much the same syndrome displayed in the Backroom. Time after time we get the Volvo/Citroen/Skoda etc owner taking any excuse to extol the virtues of their own choice of car. True it may be just perfect, but we can be forgiven for thinking it is hardly objective! - the Mandy Rice-Davies factor as someone called it in an earlier thread.
On the internet there are countless sites that give objective appraisals of any model - not least HJ on this one.
Ducks for cover.
|
Quite right, is anyone going to admit that what they bought is not the dog's?
We fall for too much hype. I can't stand the Golf but that doesn't make it a bad car. I wouldn't buy a Peugeot or a Citroen because the local dealer is an arrogant moron. BMWs may be great cars but the seats in the 3 and the 5 series give me backache after 20 mins - offset pedal syndrome.
Most cars are pretty average - the average is much higher than it used to be but your average Peugoet, Citroen, VW, Volvo, etc... are consumer goods. They do a job. That's it.
|
Cars *are* consumer goods but they differ tremendously and what suits one person might not suit another. Peugeot & Citroen, for example generally have a better ride than VW & Volvo but are often less reliable.
I have a back weakness which necessitates a 'straight' driving position but I have never found a problem with the pedal positions in the several manual BMW 5-series cars that I have driven. My own car is 5-series automatic and this gives me no backache whatsoever.
My wife has a quite severe back problem and in early 2000 we tried dozens of new and nearly-new cars but every one of them hurt her back. She then saw a 1992 BMW 525i Touring and suggested that we try it but I was not at all interested as I regarded BMW's as fit only for poseurs. She insisted, so I reluctantly agreed but with absolutely no intention of buying. She sat in it and said "David, I want this car!". Not only was it the only car in which she could get comfortable (and for journeys of several hundred miles as well) but it has endeared itself to me as a superb car to drive and maintain. So "yes", I have brand loyalty towards BMW.
Brand loyalty doesn't mean that I wouldn't consider other makes for my next car. In fact, the BMW 5-series would have to fight with the Rover 75 for my custom even though the last Rover I owned (a 1995 Rover 400) was a big disappointment and a bad buy. I would also consider a Skoda and most German cars, but I would be hard pressed to buy French because their quality can't be relied upon, or Japanese as I have yet to find one that I enjoy driving. When the French and Japanese improve their act they will feature in my considerations and brand loyalty won't enter into it.
|
|
|
I must be a bit special then folks 'cos I've never bought a car from the same manufacturer twice. I couldn't give a stuff what people think about my car and pity those who only buy to impress others.
My 'volvoman' tag came only as a result of blind panic when I first signed up to this site and, although I like the car quite a lot, my only reason for buying it from my brother was because my old dog of a Rover (820) was dying and the Volvo estate was big enough for me and the kids etc.
I think the sort of misguided brand loyalty you describe is the very reason why we in the UK get ripped off left, right and centre by car manufacturers who take advantage of a situation which wouldn't happen elsewhere. Why else would anyone pay top dollar for a car then be told they have to wait months for it to be delivered ?
It's all a bit like restricting entry to your club in order to create a select 'image' and justify the rip-off prices !
|
Brand loyaltly is indeed a strange thing. Up to my present motor(s), I was never really bothered about which make of car i drove, so long as it worked when I turned the key...Mini, Fiat (oops!), Toyota, Peugeot, Rover. I then switched to diesel & bought a Citroen ZX TD (recommended & to be quite honest, a cracking car). On the strength of this I switched to a Xantia for towing purposes & have owned this car for some years now. OK, I bought it used (ex-company motor) & it's been to the moon & back mileage-wise. It's not been perfect & has had it's fair share of problems, but then again so has my mate's supposedly unbreakable brand-new VW Bora TDi. He may well have bought a 'Friday afternoon' car but his numerous bad experiences (car and dealer) have tarnished his view of VW to the extent that he says he will never buy another.
However, my choice of a second Citroen was also based on my experience of a local independant Cirtoen specialist, where I had my ZX serviced / repaired when necessary. Exemplary service, honest information & all at reasonable (well, reasonable for a French car) prices. Consequantly, my next car will almost certanly be another Citroen...C5 probably. Perhaps this is another reason why people stick to the same brand. It is in my case.
|
It's not so much brand loyalty in my case as dealer loyalty. Any problems I have need to be sorted out five minutes ago, and I can't afford to be off the road while mechanics sit scratching their behinds trying to solve a simple problem. Example is four visits to rectify a faulty bonnet release mechanism on my present car, a Lupo. That and other problems such as a dual brake which wouldn't release and took several 20 mile trips to the dealer to sort out mean this will be the last VW I own.
We bought Peugeots for years, despite better deals being offered by other manufacturers, soley because the dealer (Heath Park Motors in Romford) was first class and we suffered the absolute minimum of down time when we did have problems. We stopped buying Ford's many years ago because of the appaling service from a well known main dealer not a million miles from the A13.
I can put up with a less than ideal car if the selling dealer looks after me, but even the most reliable motor is a liability if the odd break down becomes a major problem.
|
Tom's right. If you have a brand of car and a dealer that you are happy with - changing may be risky. I used to drive VWs - I considered the early Golf GTIs were "best of breed" at that time. But then the models, and the dealer experience, went downhill - so I changed.
I don't think people are slavishly brand loyal if the product or service starts to suck.
|
|
|
|
|
