From the top of your head, what’s the most loved car brand in the Philippines? Naturally, it must be one of the major Japanese car manufacturers, right? Probably Toyota, or perhaps Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Nissan, or Honda you would think.
According to data gathered by analysts from Clunker Junker, the answer isn’t any of those brands. You’re looking in the wrong continent. Hell, you’re looking in the wrong price bracket altogether.
Using an AI analysis tool called HuggingFace, which takes into account how positive or negative a particular car brand was tweeted about, the study determined that McLaren is the most loved automaker in our country. Surprise!
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Apparently, mass-market sensibilities aren’t really on peoples’ minds when tweeting about car brands, because our region’s most loved manufacturers all reside in premium territory. For Indonesia, it’s Ferrari. Brunei? Lexus is apparently a very big deal over there. And Malaysia? They love their McLarens as well.
Come to think of it, we hardly see any mass-market names on the entire map Clunker Junker has created based on its analysis. A few notable exceptions? South Africa is in love with Suzuki. Ukraine has its passion for Chevies. Iraq, which loves Toyotas. And Guatemala, which apparently digs Hondas.
You can check out the full Clunker Junker study and car brand map here. Alternatively, you can rummage through our 10 most popular car reviews from last year, or see how the local industry fared as a whole in 2021.
Yes, we were surprised at the answer as well. Frankly, we thought Toyota landing in the top spot was a given. Tell us what you think of this study’s results in the comments.
