Mazda, Audi Reign Supreme in Inaugural Canadian ALG Perceived Quality Score

FYI: Mazda Buyer's Guide

FYI: Audi Buyer's Guide

FYI: Honda Buyer's Guide

Honda feels the fallout from the Japanese disaster; Lexus negatively affected by 2011 recall

TORONTO--Dec. 7, 2011: Mazda handily nabbed the top spot among mainstream brands and Audi took the lead among luxury brands, according to the first Canadian Perceived Quality Score (PQS) from ALG Inc., a subsidiary of TrueCar, Inc., and the industry benchmark for residual values and depreciation data.

"The Mazda3, which constitutes approximately 53 percent of Mazda's total sales, has been near the top of the Canadian sales charts in both 2011 and 2010, so it's not surprising that Mazda leads the mainstream list with a substantial margin of 12 points above the second ranked brand," states Geoff Helby, Regional Director for ALG Canada. "The winning combination of Audi's 'truth in engineering' and design helps the brand land firmly at the top of the luxury category."

For this inaugural study, ALG surveyed approximately 2,500 Canadian consumers to measure perceptions of a number of mainstream and luxury automotive brands. Moving forward, ALG will survey consumers twice a year as they do in the U.S. "Consumer perception is a powerful force in the success or failure of a brand. While a strong perception can lead to greater sales, a negative perception of even one vehicle can lead a consumer to scorn a brand's entire lineup. In the U.S., our PQS has become the standard by which the retail automotive industry gauges consumer perceptions and beliefs, and we fully expect the same will hold true in the Canadian market" states Mr. Helby.

The Canadian study also determined the top three brands consumers are considering purchasing for their next vehicles. Ford cars topped the list (28 percent), followed by Honda (25 percent) and Toyota (25 percent). While Toyota and Ford have above average PQS rankings of 74.8 and 66.7 (out of 100) respectively on this initial survey, Honda's below-average ranking of 61.3 may be driven in part by the launch of the new generation Civic in 2011, Canada's best-selling car for the past 13 consecutive years, which was significantly impacted by production issues stemming from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Surprisingly, Lexus landed slightly below average on the luxury list with an overall PQS of 72.2 after reigning supreme among luxury brands in the Fall 2011 U.S. PQS. This could be attributed to Toyota's recent recall of approximately 23,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in 2011. Additionally, the PQS for Mercedes (62.4) and BMW (63.5) both performed below average, even though both have a large share of the Canadian luxury market and are commonly well respected brands.

Additional highlights from the survey include: in the luxury category, Audi topped the charts with an overall PQS of 84.7, followed by Porsche (84.6), Land Rover (83.7), Infiniti (78.5) and Volvo (77.1). Mazda (85.5) led the mainstream brands, followed by GMC (78.1), Toyota (74.8), Hyundai (74.5) and Buick (74.5). The Dodge Truck nameplate (54.6), which includes the Dodge Durango and Journey, ranks lowest among the mainstream brands, while Jaguar (61) landed at the bottom of the luxury list.

The complete list with scores and details is available at: ALG 2011 .

About ALG

Based in Santa Barbara, California, ALG, Inc. is a leading provider of data and consulting services to the automotive industry. ALG publishes the "Automotive Lease Guide" -- the standard for Residual Value projections in North America, and has been forecasting automotive residual values for over 45 years in both the U.S. and Canadian markets. ALG is a subsidiary of TrueCar, Inc.