Lexus took top honors in a study to measure the reputation and customer sentiment surrounding automotive brands.

The luxury brand earned a “health score” of 95 out of 100 to edge Toyota (94) and BMW (91) for the No. 1 ranking on the 2024 Widewail Brand Scorecard, a study conducted by customer review and reputation management platform Widewail.

The study analyzed some 1.1 million Google reviews of 14 luxury and 18 non-luxury brands. The health score incorporates factors such as regional performance, detailed brand sentiment performance across 27 topics, reputation performance, best-selling model performance and top-rated dealers.

“There’s more competition than ever across the automotive retail industry, and reputation is a powerful differentiator that can meaningfully impact search ranking and sway customer decision-making in the car-buying process,” Widewail CEO Matt Murray said. “Our 2024 Brand Scorecard is designed to provide automotive brands with a clear picture of what their customers say, how they stack up against their competition and what factors drive their reputations.

“Lexus earned the top spot for reputation thanks to its high monthly review volume, an exceptionally high rate of response to reviews, and a very low percentage of negative reviews.”

In 2023, Lexus received a median monthly review volume of 21.2, with a median lifetime Google rating is 4.7 stars. The automaker responded to 98% of its reviews, and only 8% of the total reviews left by Lexus customers were negative.

Lexus and Toyota had the same median review volume, but Lexus had a slightly higher median rating (Toyota’s was 4.5) and a 4% higher response rate.

The median monthly review volume benchmark for all the brands in 2023 was 10.4.

Widewail said Lexus service was mentioned in 18.5% more positive reviews than the industry benchmark. Lexus also has 20.9% fewer negative mentions of repairs, 14.2% fewer negative mentions of communication and 14.6% fewer negative mentions of service, Lexus customers enjoy a premium service experience. On the sales side, Lexus received 7.4% above the industry benchmark for positive mentions of staff and 26% more positive mentions of professionalism.

Four of the top 10 brands – which also included Honda (88), Nissan (87), Kia (83), Volkswagen (80), Hyundai (80), Mercedes-Benz (78) and Audi and Subaru tied for 10th with a score of 77 – were in the luxury category. The highest-ranked American brand was RAM at No. 15.

Jaguar (48), Lincoln (40) and Genesis (36) scored the lowest, the result of low review volume and, in the case of Lincoln and Genesis, poor response rates.

All of the top five brands surpassed industry benchmarks in what Widewail called the most influential service categories: service, communication, wait times and repairs.

The study can be downloaded here.