6 Car Brands Keep New Customers; 8 Tend To Lose Them

Sean Tucker 01/25/2023 8:13am

People who buy one Tesla tend to buy a second Tesla. Once people buy one Subaru, they tend to buy another Subaru to replace it. Jeep lovers replace their Jeep with another Jeep.

Dodge buyers are far less likely to go back for a second Dodge. Audi has the same problem.

An S&P Global Mobility analysis of car buyers finds that some brands are far better at holding onto their customers than others.

Car dealers break down the customers who come to them into two categories — loyalists who come back to the same brand over and over throughout their lives, and nomads who wander in between.

Nomads are getting more common, S&P says. This latest analysis showed “the highest ‘One and Done’ rate (defection rate of Nomads) in at least 10 years,” the company says.

That isn’t necessarily a problem. It could be a matter of strategy. Dodge, after all, has positioned itself as a marketer of muscle. If you want a muscle car when you’re child-free and a minivan when kids come along, they can help you with the first part of your preference and recommend a nice Chrysler for the second.

But, says Erin Gomez, associate director of consulting for S&P Global Mobility, “Brands that fail to transform Nomads into Loyalists not only lose out on the immediate sale to the Nomad, but also the future loyalty benefit they could have provided as Loyalists.”