2020 UK: Most Trusted Car Brands in Britain

Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Ford are the most trusted car brands in Britain of the top 20 best-selling car marques in the UK.

Mercedes-Benz is the UK’s most trusted car brand, according to the 2020 CarGurus Car Buyer Trust Index report, a study commissioned by online automotive marketplace CarGurus. While British men had the most trust in Mercedes-Benz, women trusted Audi and Ford more. Tesla was rated 12th most trusted overall, although men placed the electric car brand only 18th. Trust in Fiat and French brands Peugeot, Renault and Citroen was low.

UK Car Buyer Trust Report Index 2020

The German carmaker Mercedes-Benz topped a list of 21 manufacturers that have been ranked as part of the inaugural CarGurus Car Buyer Trust Index, a new independent report that provides insight into how perceived trust impacts decision-making among different genders and age groups.

In 2019, Mercedes-Benz became the third best-selling car brand in Britain behind Ford and Vauxhall.

Audi, Ford, Toyota, and Volvo completed the top five with Fiat recording the lowest overall brand ranking.

Researchers at GlobalWebIndex asked 2,183 car-buyers to rank car makers on five key factors that build trust: integrity, transparency, genuineness, social conscience, and reliability. This formulated the overall performance for each brand.

Twenty-one car makers were included in the Index, with 20 based on sales data from The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd (SMMT) with Tesla added as a brand of topical interest. Tesla finished mid-table when it came to consumer trust, slotting into 12^th place in the report.

Index of Most Trusted Car Brands in Britain

The survey showed the following as the most-trusted car brands overall in Britain:

	Brand	Index
1^st	Mercedes-Benz	73.6
2^nd	Audi	70.6
3^rd	Ford	70.2
4^th	Toyota	69.4
5^th	Volvo	67.9
6^th	BMW	66.7
7^th	KIA	66.7
8^th	Vauxhall	66.4
9^th	Mini	65.7
10^th	Honda	65.5
11^th	Volkswagen	65.2
12^th	Tesla	64.4
13^th	Nissan	64.4
14^th	Land Rover	64.2
15^th	Hyundai	63.7
16^th	SEAT	63.1
17^th	Skoda	62.7
18^th	Citroën	60.8
19^th	Renault	59.8
20^th	Peugeot	58.8
21^st	FIAT	55.4

Trusted Car Brands in Britain by Gender

The report showed some significant differences between the trust men and women have in various automotive brands.

Mercedes-Benz was most trusted overall by male car buyers whereas Audi and Ford shared the top spot as the brands in which women put the most faith.

There were greater differences of opinion among some of the other brands, though. Kia, rated as second overall for men, was a lowly 15^th for women. MINI, on the other hand, was ranked fifth overall by women and 15^th by men. Women also trusted Volkswagen far more than men.

Car brand trust in Britain by gender:

	Male	Female
1^st	Mercedes-Benz	Audi & Ford
2^nd	KIA
3^rd	Volvo	Toyota
4^th	Audi	Mercedes-Benz
5^th	Vauxhall	MINI
6^th	Ford	Volkswagen
7^th	Toyota	Tesla
8^th	BMW	BMW
9^th	Hyundai	Honda
10^th	Land Rover	Volvo
11^th	Citroën	Nissan
12^th	Honda	SEAT
13^th	Nissan	Vauxhall
14^th	Skoda	Land Rover
15^th	MINI	KIA
16^th	Volkswagen	Peugeot
17^th	SEAT	Skoda
18^th	Tesla	Hyundai
19^th	Renault	Renault
20^th	Peugeot	FIAT
21^st	FIAT	Citroën

“For consumers, having trust in a purchase – and who they are buying it from – is fundamental to the buying journey. Therefore, we created the CarGurus Car Buyer Trust Index to help gain a deeper understanding of how trust is built, and the extent to which it informs car-buying decisions,” said Chris Knapman, CarGurus UK editor.

“The Car Buyer Trust Index provides unprecedented insight into the role that trust plays in the car buying process, while at the same time showing our commitment to becoming the world’s most trusted and transparent car-buying platform.”

UK Car Buyer Trust Report Index 2020

Index of Most Trusted Car Brands in Britain

Trusted Car Brands in Britain by Gender

Henk Bekker