2025 Widewail Brand Reputation Scorecard: Lexus Claims Number One Reputation Ranking for Second Consecutive Year
Report examines 8.1 million Google reviews to determine brand “Health Scores” of twenty-nine automotive manufacturers in the United States, ranks reputations of top car makers.
BURLINGTON, VT (February 18, 2025) – Widewail, the leading customer review and reputation management solution, today released the 2025 Widewail Brand Scorecard, a study that examines and ranks the reputations and sentiments of 29 automotive manufacturers across the United States. For the second consecutive year, Lexus was ranked the number one auto maker for its stellar reputation among all automotive brands. Toyota and Honda are ranked second and third, respectively. BMW, which was ranked third in the 2024 edition of the Brand Scorecard, slipped one spot to number four.
The study analyzed 8.1 million Google customer reviews across 18,000 US-based new car dealers across 2023-2024. For the report, Widewail used AI to analyze and uncover trends in customer experience at scale, turning customer feedback into data-backed portraits of experiences on the ground for dealership customers in 2024. The reviews were used to rank each brand based on a rating or “Health Score” out of 100 that measures the quality of its reputation today. A brand’s Health Score is based on four core reputation metrics: review response rate, star rating, lifetime review volume, and monthly review volume. It is a relative metric based on the other brands it is directly compared to. Core metrics are calculated by analyzing the Google reviews from the dealership network for each OEM.
“Google reviews continue to have a critical impact on brand reputations, particularly in the retail automotive industry,” said Matt Murray, CEO of Widewail. “Direct and transparent customer experience data provides a window into what it’s like to interact with all aspects of an automotive brand. The 2025 Widewail Brand Reputation Scorecard is the industry’s only tool that gives automakers a full and clear picture of what is driving their reputation among the customers whose business they compete to earn.”
Lexus Maintains its Top Spot
Lexus (Rank: 1 | Health Score 97/100) began 2024 as the industry leader in monthly review volume. It maintained the top position, holding off a substantial push from Toyota, which also saw a 26% growth in review volume in 2024, and Honda, which grew 37% year-over-year. Without its strong performance and growth, Lexus would likely have lost its top spot.
Importantly, Lexus concurrently maintained an average rating of 4.7 stars. A deeper examination into what’s driving, that 4.7 rating reveals the following:
“Lexus maintained its position as the brand with the best reputation overall, thanks to its impressive ability to efficiently activate the voice of its customers on a per-rooftop basis. The company’s continued reputation success sets a high bar,” noted Murray.
A Shakeup in the Top 3
Toyota (Rank: 2 | Health Score: 96/100) maintained its number two ranking on the 2025 Widewail Brand Scorecard. Toyota has done a good job of minimizing negative reviews that mention service-oriented topics: service department, communication, and car maintenance/repair. However, waiting times stand out as a pain point for the brand, mentioned in negative reviews 18% more often than is typical for the industry. Additionally, Toyota is slightly underperforming the industry in many topics common to positive reviews.
The top three automakers ranked on the Widewail Brand Scorecard have a new entrant in 2025. Honda (Rank: 3 | Health Score: 95/100) claimed the number three ranking, edging BMW (Rank: 4 | Health Score: 95/100) down to number four. While both Honda and BMW earned the same Health Scores, BMW had a disappointing 7% monthly review volume gain. The industry average gain was 18% in 2024.
The Honda customer experience story varies from that of Toyota by outperforming the industry in many positive topics. Helpfulness is a strength of the brand, while negativity surrounding price and cost is a problem when stacked against Toyota and Lexus, who receive fewer negative mentions of price/cost.
The Biggest Winners in 2025
Several automotive brands made significant reputation gains on the 2025 Widewail Brand Scorecard. The most notable include:
Acura moved up five spots in the 2025 rankings, the most of any brand. This jump is due to a 51% increase in median monthly review volume per rooftop, from 8.4 to 12.7, outpacing the average industry increase of 18%. This growth is primarily in service, where its review volume increased by 53% year-over-year. The Acura customer experience also helped with the dealership base, distinguishing itself notably in two topics: professionalism and waiting time.
Genesis has successfully battled a rising industry trend of staff negativity. The luxury brand’s staff’s negativity only grew 5% this year, leading the industry and fighting against strong headwinds. Industry-wide, staff negativity grew by 20% in 2024.
Land Rover, which has a Health Score of 85/100, maintained the number one topic ranking with 83% of positive reviews mentioning staff.
Similarly, Volvo climbed with a superior positive staff mention growth rate.
The Biggest Backslides in 2025
MINI fell six spots in the reputation rankings, the most of any brand this year. While MINI’s loss of rankings is primarily related to a 29% drop in monthly review volume per dealership, the brand is also experiencing challenges with negativity related to staff, communication, and knowledge.
Volkswagen struggled with review efficiency in 2024, losing 22% of its monthly volume per location (from 16.6 reviews to 13), resulting in a ranking drop from #9 to #14.
Communication is the number one cause of negative reviews. Surprisingly, Mercedes-Benz finished as the lowest-ranked brand for communication, with over 45% of its negative reviews mentioning communication.
Jaguar saw a 25% increase in negativity related to pricing from 2023 to 2024. No other brand came close to that. During that same period, negativity around pricing has dropped 1.7% industry wide.
To learn more about the 2025 Widewail Brand Scorecard, visit the website here.
Methodology
The detailed methodology is available here.
About Widewail
Widewail is deeply integrated into the automotive industry, supporting over 5,000 dealership clients. Widewail’s suite of solutions powers the modern shopping experience by leveraging automation to drive and directly manage customer and prospect conversations in consumer reviews, video, and social media. The Widewail Trust Marketing Platform helps businesses capture, distribute, and shape the narrative of their business through the words of their customers with great reviews and video testimonial content, building trust between businesses and the communities they serve. The result: Widewail’s solutions improve search rankings and help companies understand how their actions affect customer satisfaction and overall reputation. For more information visit https://www.widewail.com/.
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