Hyundai Owners Most Loyal in the Industry

From the Department of Redundancy Department comes this new, calling someone a loyal Hyundai owner is now officially redundant officially according to a metric from Brand Keys, a New York-based brand, customer loyalty and engagement consultancy.

“Hyundai continues to top our automotive category due to their understanding of how to exceed customer expectations with model after model,” said Robert Passikoff, president, Brand Keys. “Hyundai delivers consistently high levels of emotional engagement for their brand and for their customers by leveraging class-leading technologies, all while providing real brand value.”

So, if you're a Hyundai owner, it goes without saying you're a loyal Hyundai owner. (A lesson hard learned by anyone who has ever criticized the Hyundai Genesis coupe.)

OK, so Hyundai technically tied for first but it sure seems to own this award after winning it four years in a row. Automotive brands rounding out the top of the list in the 2014 index are: Ford (tied for No.1), Lexus/Jeep/Mercedes (tied for No.2), Subaru/BMW (tied for No.3), Toyota (No.4) and GM (No.5). Missing from the list is Kia, which could partly explain its soft sales last year.

Want to know what the least engaging automotive brand is? That honor would go to Volkswagen. According to Brand Keys, the other least engaging brands would be BlackBerry, Quiznos and Kmart followed by Sony (e-readers), Wow search engine [what the hell is Wow search engine?] Sears, American Apparel, Budweiser (regular – because apparently Bud Light is more engaging), Coty Cosmetics and Volkswagen. Not only is Volkswagen the least engaging automotive brand, according to Brand Keys, it's the 10th least engaging brand overall.

“Every new vehicle in Hyundai’s lineup is designed and engineered to go above and beyond what our customers expect from their vehicles,” said Steve Shannon, vice president, Marketing, Hyundai Motor America. “It is very rewarding to see that our unwavering commitment to providing our customers with the quality products they deserve results in long-term customer loyalty.”