In their 6th annual ‘Brandz’ release, Millward Brown included a list of the top 10 most valuable car brands in the world. Considering Toyota’s recent large scale recalls, you might be surprised to find them the top of the list – with an estimated value of some USD $24.2bn. Millward Brown put this down to the continued popularity of Toyota’s highly fuel-efficient Prius model. The lesson to be learned from this, then, is that minor issues such as brakes that don’t quite work and accelerator pads that can’t be released are relatively unimportant, easily compensated for by a lower petrol bill and a cheap tires.
With first place going to Japan, European car manufacturers BMW and Mercedes Benz claimed second and third place respectively, with the first and only American brand (Ford) entering at a modest eight position, which must be worrying considering the amount of money that is being poured into the ailing American car giants.
The full top ten list looks as follows:
- Toyota
- BMW
- Mercedes Benz
- Honda
- Porsche
- Nissan
- Volkswagen
- Ford
- Audi
- Lexus
Statistics shows that there is an increased demand for Toyota car finance, meaning that people are quite keen on purchasing Japanese cars, especially the Prius. Millward Brown also noticed that smaller Korean car manufacturers have made a massive leap during the last year. It's likely that in a couple of years time brands like Hyundai will easily be near to the top of this list. With new green models in the pipeline and brand recognition increasing worldwide it sounds quite plausible, however, when it comes to Japanese brands, it will be difficult for anyone to displace them from the top 10.