For 18 years in a row, Toyota New Zealand has gained the Readers Digest Most Trusted Brand Award, and its Signature Class-branded used cars picked up the award for the fifth year in a row.

Toyota’s overall most trusted brand award is for Cars, while the Signature Class award is for the Certified Used Cars category. 

Toyota’s unrelenting approach to excellent customer service, product quality and affordability, has resulted in retaining these two Readers Digest Most Trusted Brand Awards.

Toyota New Zealand Chief Executive, Neeraj Lala, says the awards are particularly pleasing and are consistent with the brand’s new vision of Let’s Go Places, which is built on three key pillars of sustainability, mobility, and community.

“Trust is a unique and complex component of our brand. It is built on many facets of our business – our deep community connections through our Toyota Store network from Whangarei to Invercargill; our commitment to operating in a sustainable way; and our determination to ensure all kiwis have access to affordable, reliable, and functional mobility,” he says.

“We have experienced many challenges with supply shortages and vehicle delays over the past year and I continue to be enormously grateful to the thousands of Toyota customers for their continued loyalty and trust.” 

Lala says the award for Signature Class is also extremely pertinent in the current economic environment, when so many kiwis are concerned about the cost of living and require access to affordable, yet high quality and low CO2 emitting vehicles.

 “We have recently seen a greater interest in Signature Class as used car buyers seek out good value and exceptional quality. Signature Class sources only high-quality hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric Toyotas and refurbishes them at our Thames facility,” he says.

The focus now on electrified Signature Class vehicles supports Toyota New Zealand’s goal of reducing overall tailpipe emissions of the cars its sells by 46% by 2030.

Signature Class vehicles sold through Toyota’s dealer network are a mixture of New Zealand new and imported vehicles. All are hand-picked by Toyota buyers and go through the Thames refurbishment process, where the odometers are certified, a full safety check is carried out by the AA and a full service is undertaken with parts replaced as necessary.

Toyota offers a three-year warranty on its Signature Class cars as well as a three years of AA roadside assistance and three years of Warrant of Fitness checks.

Signature Class has been part of the used car scene since 1997 when Toyota New Zealand set up the programme to deliver used cars that buyers could trust and rely on. There are now more than 50,000 Signature Class vehicles on the road.

The Trusted Brand awards, now in their 24th year, are based on the views of 1,700 New Zealand consumers. The research is undertaken independently of Reader’s Digest. Consumers were asked to name their most trusted brand in each of 71 categories.