Despite the bad publicities hurdled at Toyota it didn’t stop new and loyal customers from visiting Toyota dealers to purchase Toyota vehicles. As a matter of fact the result of the survey conducted by J.D. Power & Associates shows that Toyota has once again led all automakers in terms of customer retention.

Toyota has posted 65% of Toyota’s buyers last year has traded a Toyota for a new one. Coming in second place is Toyota’s luxury division Lexus with 63% followed by Honda Motor, the producer of high quality Acura headers with 62.8%.

Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis at J.D. Power said, "Toyota's high customer retention rate is particularly notable, considering that new-vehicle sales have declined in the past year. Toyota maintains its high retention rates by providing high-quality vehicles and service to its existing customers, which in turn generates favorable word-of-mouth recommendations that attract new customers."

Toyota’s customer retention is quite impressive considering that the overall average obtained by the industry is only 49% with the highest US nameplate Chevrolet obtaining 56% attributed to the high loyalty rate among buyers of Chevy pickups and large sport-utility vehicles such as the Suburban. Ford Motor has also obtained 53% of which a great deal was attributed to the pickup business.

The brands that score poorly on the survey include Mini, Isuzu Motors, Pontiac, Jaguar and Land Rover.

BMW has topped European brands in terms of customer loyalty at 58% while Mercedes-Benz comes in second place with 57% followed by prosche with 42%, Audi with 41%, Saab at 34%, and Volvo and Volkswagen both with 33%. The weakness of the US dollar against the Euro has made it harder for European brands to retain customers.