Allpar Survey Findings - 2006
Recently, we conducted a survey of Allpar readers with 899 responses. Questions covered several interesting (to us) topics, without the usual demographics. Here is what we found:
Dodge Hornet
As you may know, Chrysler has said that they would not make a small car (e.g. the Hornet) without a “partner” to share costs. Most observers believe this means using the previous-generation Golf platform with a Chrysler drivetrain. We suggested using a PT Cruiser basic platform - which itself was derived from the Neon, so it could be light and quick. Unfortunately in the survey we didn't mention the rational for any particular idea. Here is how you answered the question (the “Net” column is based only on the answers of those who are interested in a Hornet-type car):
Which version of the Dodge Hornet would you be most likely to buy?
| Total | Net | |
|---|---|---|
| A sedan based on the last-generation Neon platform | 13% | 17% |
| A sedan based on the last-generation Golf/Jetta platform | 13% | 17% |
| A sedan based on a revised PT Cruiser platform (but in sedan form) | 12% | 16% |
| A sedan based on the Caliber | 29% | 38% |
| A sedan from Chery with some Dodge engineering | 1% | 2% |
| A sedan adapted from a Peugeot or Citroen design | 4% | 5% |
| A sedan based on the Colt with a Chrysler engine and tuning | 4% | 6% |
| None of these, I'm not interested in owning a car of this type | 16% | |
| None of these, I'm not interested in these particular options | 8% |
As you can see, our readers were actually most interested in a sedan based on the Caliber, after whicih interest was split evenly among the previous-generation Neon, previous-generation Golf/Jetta, and modified PT Cruiser. Almost nobody wanted a Chery, and few wanted a Mitsubishi or French design.
Marketing
Since it was topical, we asked what people thought about an ad campaign stressing German engineering. Responses were pretty evenly split between positive and negative. |
Love it | 13% |
|---|---|---|
| Like it | 21% | |
| It's okay | 34% | |
| Don't like it | 16% | |
| Really don't like it | 17% |
Plymouth cars
Most people (67%) would still want Plymouth if Chrysler was to bring out a new carline. There were also a small number of write-ins for Eagle. If Plymouth were to be resurrected, it would at least have a lot of buyers among the allpar crowd.
If Chrysler were to bring out another ‘value’ carline, what would you name it? |
If Plymouth were to be resurrected as a value brand, |
|||||
| Plymouth | 67% | Definitely | 18% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anything other than Plymouth | 9% | Probably | 35% | |||
| I'm against any new brands | 13% | Not sure | 27% | |||
| Other / not sure | 11% | Probably not | 12% | |||
| Definitely not | 7% | |||||
Other Chrysler brands
| Chrysler | Plymouth | Dodge | Mercedes | Volkswagen | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fun | 19% | 34% | 74% | 11% | 33% |
| Durable | 36% | 31% | 56% | 43% | 22% |
| Reliable | 45% | 35% | 51% | 40% | 24% |
| Rewarding | 46% | 21% | 46% | 41% | 13% |
| Dull | 6% | 31% | 2% | 22% | 41% |
| Innovative | 60% | 13% | 49% | 45% | 20% |
| Nicely styled | 67% | 24% | 59% | 42% | 23% |
| Bold | 36% | 10% | 77% | 15% | 8% |
| Elegant | 69% | 4% | 7% | 63% | 6% |
| Inexpensive | 8% | 70% | 34% | 1% | 22% |
| Fast | 27% | 23% | 78% | 40% | 12% |
| Comfortable | 73% | 23% | 37% | 59% | 18% |
| Safe | 56% | 31% | 46% | 65% | 37% |
| Friendly | 32% | 48% | 47% | 9% | 34% |
| Arrogant | 6% | 2% | 11% | 62% | 24% |
| Desirable | 59% | 23% | 56% | 53% | 15% |
In a typical market research “assign the labels” question we found some interesting marketing dynamics. We sure wish we know what Chrysler has turned up in their research so we’d know how representative our sample was.
This table has values over 50% bolded (except for Plymouth and Volkswagen where there was less agreement). Plymouth has a fairly diverse set of responses which unfortunately is not especially favorable, aside from the judgements that Plymouth is inexpensive (as it should be) and friendly, a nice counterpoint to bold Dodge and arrogant Mercedes.
The flagship Chrysler brand scores highest for comfort and elegance, with agreement on styling and innovation as well. Safety matched all but Mercedes, and desirability among this probably-biased sample was higher than the other brands. (We didn’t look at Jeep because we were largely focusing on cars for this one.)
Dodge, reflecting its new brand image, scored highest on fast and fun, with the Hemi over-ruling the Caliber; Dodge also received the highest marks for durable and reliable. A majority also checked desirable and nicely styled. Mercedes scored highest of the rated brands on safety, but the outstanding characteristic of Mercedes was seen as arrogance - 62% of readers checked “arrogant” for Mercedes, compared with 24% for Volkswagen and only 11% for Dodge, the “most arrogant” of the Chrysler brands. Mercedes came in just behind Chrysler in elegance and desirability, and was also highly rated for comfort. Volkswagen, by contrast, was seen as dull by an unusual number of people — that was its outstanding characteristic — even though Volkswagen currently sells on the reputation of its turbocharged and VR6 engines, not to mention the W8. Among this audience, it seems that Volkswagen has a lot of work to do, despite Chrysler’s commercials extolling German engineering.
Chrysler and Dodge shared the top slot for “rewarding,” while Dodge, ignoring reliabilty ratings, beat Chrysler in perceptions of reliability (Mercedes came in just ahead of Plymouth and far ahead of Volkswagen).
The lowest scores of each brand are also interesting. Both Chrysler and Dodge were rated as arrogant by a very small number of people - 2% in the case of Plymouth! - while for Dodge, “dull” was hardly to be seen with only 2% giving that rating. A mere 1% called Mercedes inexpensive - a nice check on the findings - and only 6% checked “elegant” for Volkswagen.
The implications for Chrysler are interesting. The Dodge campaign of bold and brash seems to be working, while Chrysler itself seems to be doing well among the allpar crowd. Plymouth could easily be resurrected as an inexpensive brand but it might have to overcome a bit of dullness and a weak reputation for durability and reliability; these could probably be overcome by referencing the early (and mostly forgotten) history of Plymouth, and with judicious use of respected nameplates (Valiant, anyone?). Partnering with Volkswagen doesn’t seem like an appropriate match — Chrysler has generally managed to avoid having its cars seen as arrogant, while Volkswagen seems to be striving for that.
Finally, we looked at our own numbers, on all categories where we could fairly be compared with the automakers, and found that we were seen as fun and friendly - the friendliest of the group but not as fun as Dodge. Allpar was also seen as rewarding. Very few saw allpar as dull or arrogant, but very few saw allpar as elegant, either, and we were distressed by the lack of ratings of “safe” and the relatively few “nicely styled.” As a result of this survey, including the results of the open ends, we will be taking some limited steps to increase readability and “sizzle” while trying to maintain page loading times. That effort will take some time. The second most prevalent comment in the open ends, as far as we’ve gotten reading them so far, had to do with the lack of images on the site, and we’ll be working to add more, but that takes more time than anything else. We may be gaining another editor to help us keep up next year.
| Chrysler | Plymouth | Dodge | Mercedes | Volkswagen | Allpar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fun | 19% | 34% | 74% | 11% | 33% | 70% |
| Rewarding | 46% | 21% | 46% | 41% | 13% | 59% |
| Dull | 6% | 31% | 2% | 22% | 41% | 3% |
| Innovative | 60% | 13% | 49% | 45% | 20% | 46% |
| Nicely styled | 67% | 24% | 59% | 42% | 23% | 38% |
| Bold | 36% | 10% | 77% | 15% | 8% | 30% |
| Elegant | 69% | 4% | 7% | 63% | 6% | 15% |
| Safe | 56% | 31% | 46% | 65% | 37% | 28% |
| Friendly | 32% | 48% | 47% | 9% | 34% | 70% |
| Arrogant | 6% | 2% | 11% | 62% | 24% | 3% |
Thank you if you took the survey! We’ll be sending out prizes and announcing the results of the Photochop contest soon.