The trust scores of most car companies declined last year amid ongoing delivery delays and stock shortages, but one brand appears to have handled the pandemic better than others.
Toyota has topped the list of Australia’s most-trusted car brands for 2021 – the second such survey in as many months – in a year that saw buyers gravitate to companies they trust during the pandemic.
However, while it was good news for Toyota, Australian new-car buyers are becoming more cautious towards the automotive industry in general – as ongoing delivery delays due to chronic stock shortages eroded trust with consumers.
According to Roy Morgan’s annual Risk Report – which polled 21,487 Australian consumers on their attitudes towards major brands – many automotive trust scores decreased in 2021 compared to previous years.
“Overall, the sector is considered ‘neutral’ with the same proportion of Australians offering unprompted mentions of distrusted automotive brands as trusted ones. In previous reports, the (car) industry was marginally trusted,” said the latest report by Roy Morgan.
Toyota claimed first place in Roy Morgan’s annual trust rankings for the fourth year in a row – since the inception of the survey in March 2018.
This sentiment was also reflected in Toyota’s annual sales, which was market leader for 19 years in a row in 2021, and continues to represent more than one in five of all new vehicles sold.
It’s the second time in two months Toyota has topped a survey of the most-trusted car brands, having also claimed first place in the annual Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands Survey for the 17th year running.
Other popular brands struggled in the latest Roy Morgan trust score survey.
Despite claiming second place in 2020, Tesla dropped out of the top 10 most-trusted automotive brands for 2021, with consumers now rating their attitudes towards the electric car specialist as ‘neutral’.
“Despite founder Elon Musk being named (Time Magazine) 2021 person of the year, Tesla has actually fallen into the ‘neutral’ category, with an increase in distrust cancelling out the brand’s trust,” the Roy Morgan report said.
“The increase in distrust was mostly driven by a disdain for the company’s founder, Elon Musk.”
Most-trusted car brands in Australia 2021
- Toyota
- Mazda
- Honda
- Subaru
- Mercedes-Benz
- BMW
- Ford
- Kia
- Hyundai
- Nissan
Source: Roy Morgan Risk Report 2021
Mazda rose to second place followed by Honda in third place, Subaru in fourth and Mercedes-Benz in fifth.
BMW and Nissan – which didn’t make the top 10 in 2020 – were new entrants to the list in 2021, placing sixth and tenth respectively.
Along with Tesla, ‘neutral’ brands – or brands who were equally trusted and distrusted – include Mitsubishi and the now-defunct Holden.
The only automotive brand with more consumer distrust than trust was Volkswagen, although it was joined in the ‘distrust’ category by ride-share service Uber.
“Volkswagen’s global emissions scandal was mentioned by numerous respondents, despite occurring six years ago. This scandal was clearly still top of mind for many Australians,” the Roy Morgan report said.
Roy Morgan’s report currently tracks trust scores for 33 automotive brands, but also gathers data on major brands in multiple industries across the country.
“Australians’ reasons for trusting automotive brands are often based on their personal experiences with the vehicles, their reliability and quality of service,” the report said.
“Representative comments include ‘I own one and love them. Reliable and somewhat easy to work on. They’re fun cars, make good reliable products which perform as expected’,” the company said.
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