My folks had Chryslers until they switched to GM.  I was 16 by then and not around much.  I also bought Chryslers (and leased them to others, too) until the company was acquired by Mercedes Benz.

Of course, car companies (and dealers) spend some $ 33 billion a year to make us want what they are selling.  I admit some of those ads are really intriguing. (Two that come to mind- the Chrysler Concorde and the Subaru with the little girl [not] in the driver’s seat.)   But, I never was tempted to buy either car.

Now, four economists published a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Dr. S. Anderson (Michigan State), R. Kellog (U of Michigan), A. Langer (Arizona), and J. Salee (Chicago) indicate the cars our parents own and buy have more affect on our choices than do the auto companies.

Children are 39% more likely to choose the brand their parents did.  That means that if 14.3% of parents chose a particular brand, it was more likely that 19.9% of the children would choose that same brand.  The question of whether that is learned behavior, “nostalgia”, or inertia, was not totally addressed by their research.  However, learned behavior seems to be the most likely cause of this intergenerational brand loyalty.

The analysis tracked the car brands GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Other Asian, and European.  They chose this delineation to insure that there were sufficient cars to track our behavior over the longer time periods.  They also recognized factors such as Honda’s failure to have truck models years ago, which would clearly would change the results of a long-term study.

The problem with their research conclusions is that they had no direct data nor did they effect any surveys of the folks they studied.  Instead, the researchers mined the data in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (maintained by the University of Michigan).   That study follows households of the same families throughout the generations to discern long-term behavior.

The authors of this research study feel that auto manufacturers should insure they have vehicles in the various categories (subcompact, compact, mid-sized, full sized, and SUV) to insure that the intergenerational brand loyalty will play to their favor.  If the child needs a bigger or larger car- and the brand to which their loyalty is bound fails to have such an offering, then the propensity for brand loyalty to sway the sale evaporates.  And, that could afford the next generation of auto buyers a loyalty different from the brand of their grandparents.

It explains why Hyundai’s sales have moved from the Sonata to the luxury Genesis and Equus models.  Or Toyoto’s success with Avalon, when their buyers’ parents were familiar with Corolla.  Having these upscale and different sized vehicles lets the car firms retain their customers as their lifestyle changes.

It also demonstrates why “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile” never worked to save the brand….

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