Toyota, Lexus and Honda once again topped the Presidio Brand Desirability Ranking, followed by German luxury brands Porsche and BMW and then Subaru, a mass-market Japanese brand that has become a winner on throughput, or sales per dealership. Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Hyundai and Audi round out the top 10.
The ranking is based on responses to the Presidio Dealer Direction survey, which asks dealers to rate the desirability of owning dealerships representing specific brands. We included most brands sold in the U.S. as options and presented some as clusters of brands commonly found under one roof — Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram or JaguarLand Rover, for instance. We also gave an option for ultraluxury brands (such as Aston Martin, Ferrari and McLaren) grouped collectively.
After producing three sets of rankings, patterns have emerged: top-tier Japanese brands are generally most favored by dealers, followed by top German luxury makes and then the South Korean brands. The domestic brands come in anywhere from the middle of the pack to near the bottom of the list. None of this comes as a surprise to the Presidio team, which has been seeing these dynamics play out in the dealership buy-sell market for a while now.