GM And Honda Take Top 2008 Polk Loyality Award Honors

  General Motors received top honors in the Overall Manufacturer category in R. L. Polk & Co.'s 13th Annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards, presented this evening during the annual Automotive News World Congress in Detroit. Polk is the automotive industry's premier provider of consumer loyalty information among new vehicles.

Honda Motor Company was honored as the recipient in the Overall Make category for the first time. Polk added a new award category this year - Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make. Toyota took top honors in the new category.

General Motors celebrated its ninth consecutive honor for the Overall Manufacturer by demonstrating its customer retention ability year over year. GM also received awards for several of its vehicles, including the Chevrolet Silverado, Suburban and Impala, all repeat winners in their respective categories for the 2008 model year, which ended Sept. 30. The Chevrolet Corvette also won in the Luxury Sports Car category.

"At General Motors, we continue to focus on strategies aimed at retaining our customer base. Being acknowledged by R. L. Polk & Co. and receiving the Overall Manufacturer Loyalty Award for the ninth consecutive year is a testament to the success of those strategies and the strength of our products," said Mark LaNeve, vice president, GM North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing. "We are proud to be recognized again this year with this honor."

Honda, making its debut as winner in the Overall Make Category, also was recognized as its Accord led the Midsize Car segment. Toyota and Chrysler both had repeat winners from last year's Loyalty Awards, including Toyota Tacoma in the Midsize Pickup category, along with its luxury division's Lexus ES repeating in the Luxury Car segment, and its LS repeating in the Prestige Luxury Car category. Chrysler had one repeat winner as Town & Country won in the Minivan category.

Ford captured two awards: Mustang in the Sports Car category and Focus in the Compact Car segment. Subaru Forester won the award in the Compact SUV category, Jeep Grand Cherokee received the award for the Midsize SUV segment and Land Rover's Range Rover was honored in the Luxury SUV category.

"In today's business climate, customer loyalty is key to business success," said Stephen Polk, chairman, president and CEO of R. L. Polk & Co. "GM is making great strides to keep customers returning to its brands for new vehicle purchases. Honda's win is a testament to its increased efforts to improve products to keep their customers coming back."

Polk Manufacturer Loyalty Excelerator(TM) Report

Polk's Manufacturer Loyalty Excelerator(TM) Report, which is the basis for the Polk Automotive Loyalty rankings and annual awards, is the latest insight into consumer loyalty. This report was introduced to the automotive industry in 1995 and was created to provide household loyalty information to manufacturers at many different levels. It is now used to provide loyalty percentages for the entire automotive industry and allows for cross-industry comparisons of loyalty behavior. The report measures loyalty throughout the entire model year so that manufacturers may keep abreast of loyalty trends as they occur in the industry. The Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards recognize manufacturers for superior owner loyalty performance. Loyalty is determined when a household that owns a new vehicle returns to market and purchases or leases another new vehicle of the same model or make.

POLK AUTOMOTIVE LOYALTY AWARD WINNERS - 2008 MODEL YEAR