Prestige car brands were identified by fewer consumers as leaders in quality when compared to their mass-market counterparts, according to a new Consumer Reports study. Survey participants were asked to identify brands that they believed were leaders across seven different categories. While prestige automakers scored high marks for design and performance, they lagged in the important dimension of quality perception. “Importance varied widely across the seven dimensions, but only one of them registered a meaningful change,” says the report. “In this study, the leading factors were safety, quality and value.” Study results Consumer Reports compiled the results from their brand perception survey into an index to determine industry leaders for brand image. Toyota earned the highest index with a score of 147.4, while the first luxury brand on the list, BMW, managed a total of 92.5 points. Mercedes-Benz followed with an index of 90.1. The only other prestige brand on the list was Lexus, which earned a score of 69.2. Seven factors contributed to each brand's overall index: safety, quality, value, performance, design, environmental friendliness and innovation. Prestige brands scored well in categories such as performance and design. In the performance category, BMW and Porsche topped the list with 27.4 percent and 20.5 percent of consumers, respectively, identifying them as leaders in the category. Audi was named by 17.4 percent of respondents, followed by Mercedes-Benz (10 percent) and Lexus (9.4 percent). Meanwhile, 22.1 percent of participants called BMW a leader in design and style, the highest score in the category. Porsche (19.8 percent), Mercedes-Benz (17.9 percent) and Lexus (17.2 percent) all appeared among the top five brands for design. Mercedes-Benz was also identified as a leader in innovation by 21.6 percent of consumers, tops for that category. Lexus (17.6 percent) and BMW (17.1 percent) also appeared in the top five. However, luxury brands did not fare so well in quality rankings. Honda, Ford, Toyota and Chevrolet all appeared before the first prestige brand, Mercedes-Benz, which was only identified by 15.3 percent of consumers as a leader in the category. Only two other luxury brands appeared in the top 10: BMW (12.1 percent) and Lexus (11.9 percent). Such results might prove startling to luxury brands, whose consumer base values quality of products and services as the major determinant in buying decisions (see story). Unsurprisingly, luxury brands were identified by fewer consumers as value buys. Mercedes-Benz (9.5 percent) was the only high-end automaker to crack the top 10 for identification by consumers as a leader in the category. Other findings Meanwhile, the two luxury brands that enjoyed the highest unaided awareness were BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Thirty percent of respondents were able to identify both without any prompting. Lexus came in third with 23 percent unaided awareness. By comparison, Ford scored highest in the survey with 85 percent of consumers naming the brand without any prompting. Overall, 65 percent of consumers said that safety was the most important quality when buying a car, while 57 percent labeled quality the top factor and 51 percent pointed to value as the kingmaker. Consumer reports said that the results were impacted by the weak economy. “In 2010, the automotive industry continued to suffer from weak demand amid the lingering effects of the deep recession,” the report said. “These results are echoed in this latest edition of the Consumer Reports auto brand perception poll.” Final Take Peter Finocchiaro, editorial assistant at Luxury Daily, New York