汽车品牌排名有多靠谱？
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几天前，我在汽车网站Automotive News上看到了一则标题为《丰田力挫宝马被评为全球最具价值汽车品牌》的报道。看着这个标题，我心想，这可挺有意思的。几年前，丰田（Toyota）的数次大规模召回似乎并没有影响它的声誉，而且丰田总裁丰田章男推动的企业文化改革也给公司带来了动力。 然后我继续往下读，我发现丰田之所以被评为冠军，很大程度上要归功于它在混合动力技术方面的成就。丰田的混合动力车型吸引了很多追求性价比、想省汽油钱的车主。这篇报道称，普锐斯（Prius）等混动车型“改善了这个品牌的用户体验”，而且放大了丰田的“特殊性和独特性”。 我一直认为丰田比较大气，在市场上走的是平民路线，试图吸引最广泛的消费群体。在我看来，“特殊和与众不同”似乎更符合斯巴鲁（Subaru）、而不是丰田的特质。至于混动车是否吸引追求性价比的车主的问题，大多数研究都表明，要想用油价上的差额弥补车价的差额，需要好几年的时间。 不过这份排行榜还附上了一些很有意思的数据，所以我决定继续读下去。 宝马（BMW）为什么跌到2013年的排行榜第二位？这份调查显示，原因是，与前几年相比，宝马在2012年缺乏新上市的车型。而这份排行榜上进步最快的品牌都是去年推出新车型最多的品牌。我觉得很惊讶，于是我给在宝马公司工作的一个朋友发了一份电子邮件，请他把宝马公司2012年发布的车型逐一列出来，以下就是宝马2012年发布的车型： 宝马3系轿车 宝马5系混合动力版 M5 3系四驱版 3系混合动力版 640i跑车 M6敞篷车 X3（搭载N20引擎） X6M LCI小改款 M6 Coupe 7系LCI 7系混动LCI X1 135is 看起来2012年宝马还是挺忙的。 另外这张排行榜里还有一些古怪的地方。梅塞德斯-奔驰（Mercedes）和本田（Honda）分列品牌榜的三、四位，但是日产（Nissan）居然跃升至第五位，日产CEO卡洛斯•高森听到这个消息一定是又惊又喜，因为他一直想让日产公司摆脱打折品牌的形象。“低价王者”现代汽车（Hyundai）名列第九位，紧紧跟在高端品牌奥迪（Audi）身后，略高于另一个高端品牌雷克萨斯（Lexus）。 |
The other day, I was attracted to a story on the Automotive News website that carried the headline "Toyota overtakes BMW as most valuable global car brand." Okay, I thought, that's pretty interesting. All those recalls a few years ago don't seem to have dented Toyota's reputation, and the culture change pushed by president Akio Toyoda is getting traction. Then I read a little further along and discovered that Toyota's (TM) move to the top of the heap was mostly attributed its big position in hybrids that were said to be gaining favor with value-conscious consumers who wanted to save money on gas. Hybrids like Prius were "reinforcing the experience of the brand" and magnifying what is "special and different" about Toyota. Well, I'd always thought of Toyota as big and populist in its approach to the market, trying to appeal of the greatest number of people. "Special and different" sounded to me more like Subaru than Toyota. As to whether hybrids appeal to value-conscious consumers, most studies have shown that it takes years to amortize the hybrid price premium with savings at the gas pump. Still, the ratings were accompanied by some pretty impressive numbers-crunching, so I decided to read on. Why had BMW dropped into second place in the 2013 ranking? According to the survey, it was because of the lack of new model launches in 2012 compared to previous years. The automotive brands that grew the most in the ratings, I was informed, were the ones that launched the most models. I was surprised to hear that, so I emailed a friend at BMW to get a list of its 2012 launches. Here it is: 3 Series Sedan 5 Series Active Hybrid M5 3 Series All Wheel Drive 3 Series Active Hybrid 640i Gran Coupe M6 Convertible X3 with N20 engine X6 M LCI facelift M6 Coupe 7 Series LCI 7 Series Active Hybrid LCI X1 135is Looks like BMW was pretty busy in 2012. There were some other oddities as well. Mercedes and Honda (HMC) ranked third and fourth in brand strength, but Nissan pulled in to fifth place, which must have been a delightful surprise to CEO Carlos Ghosn, who has been pushing to raise Nissan's reputation from its current status as a discount brand. And price-leader Hyundai grabbed ninth place, just behind premium-priced Audi and ahead of premium-priced Lexus. |
