This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Car owners around the world have strong opinions and loyalty to specific car brands.
The Clunker Junker wants to tap into this passion and find the most hated and loved car brands in every country around the world.
To do this, The Clunker Junker team analyzed Twitter posts that mention various car brands from around the world and analyzed the positive and negative sentiment behind each tweet to reveal which car brands are the most loved and which are the most hated in each country and state.
The Clunker Junker team has collected together a list of the leading and most popular car brands with global appeal using diverse specialized webpages, such as companiesmarketcap.com.
The team then pulled all geotagged tweets referring to these brands from every country and U.S. state. To ensure these tweets were saying about the cars in question, they created a list of terms related to driving and filtered out tweets that didn’t include some of these terms.
To label each tweet as being positive or negative, the Clunker Junker team used an AI sentiment analysis algorithm, huggingface.co. Tweets that have more than a 50 percent chance of being positive or negative were tagged as a positive or negative tweet, respectively.
To detect the most loved/hated car brand in every nation and state, the team isolated the brand with the highest percent of positive and negative tweets, respectively.
For the Tesla maps, they ranked countries and states based on the percent of positive tweets. For the United States and United Kingdom top 10s, the Clunker Junker team isolated the 10 car brands with the highest percent of positive and negative tweets, respectively.
The data was gathered in March 2022.
Here’s a of the world maps showing the most loved and hated car brands around the world.
The Most Loved Car Brand in Every Country
Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen are some of the world’s biggest carmakers. But being the biggest doesn’t necessarily mean being the best, or the most loved.
American EV maker Tesla is the most loved car brand in 21 countries, followed by Mercedes-Benz (18 countries), Ferrari (10 countries), McLaren (10 countries), and Jeep (9 countries). Interestingly, some countries love foreign brands more than homegrown automakers. Mercedes-Benz is Italy’s most loved car brand, while the Japanese love Porsche the most.
The Most Hated Car Brand in Every Country
The world has a love-and-hate affair with famous EV maker Tesla. Our data reveals that 16 countries hate Tesla, and Ferrari is hated in more countries (18) than it is loved.
But Ford takes the top spot of the most hated car brand in 20 countries, while its premium subsidiary Lincoln was most hated in 15 countries. On the other hand, 12 countries are not fond of South Korean automaker Kia.
The Countries Where Tesla Is The Most and Least Loved
Despite the onslaught of new electric vehicles from legacy automakers, Tesla has set the goalpost in EV performance. The brand typically gets a positive reception in the global arena, but it’s hard not to miss the doubters.
Surprisingly, the Philippines and Vietnam hugely favor Tesla, although Tesla remains a niche brand in those regions. Meanwhile, the folks in Thailand and Wales are not the biggest Tesla fans.
The Most Loved and Hated Car Brands in the United States
It’s not surprising for Maserati to become the most loved car brand in the US. But then again, Americans love off-roading like they love driving sports cars. Jeep, Acura, McLaren, and Bugatti are among the most loved car brands by Uncle Sam, while Toyota, Suzuki, Kia, Fiat, and Tesla are less favored.
The Most Loved Car Brand in Every US State
Each of the 50 U.S. states has a rich lineage of cultural diversity. The same is true for choosing a car brand. Italian automaker Maserati (now under the helm of Stellantis) is America’s most loved car brand, but Alabama is alone in professing the most love for the Trident brand. The most loved car brands across the United States include Tesla, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Subaru, and Jeep.
The Most Hated Car Brand in Every U.S. State
Americans love the Maserati brand, and automakers like Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai are among the most popular across all 50 states. But the car brand the entire world avoids is also getting a lot of hate from its home country. Fiat is the most hated car brand in most of U.S. states, followed by Lincoln, Kia, and Ford.
The U.S. States Where Tesla Is The Most and Least Loved
Tesla is currently the world’s biggest automaker by market capitalization. Tesla vehicles captured the world’s imagination of what an EV should be like, but they are far from perfect.
Tesla got the most love from Alaska, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, while Rhode Island and Florida are not the biggest Tesla fans among US states.
The Most Loved and Hated Car Brands in the United Kingdom
Toyota, Volkswagen, Daimler, and Ford are some of the world’s biggest car brands, but none of them are the most loved car brands in the United Kingdom .
Italian automaker Ferrari remains a favorite car brand in the UK, followed closely by Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, and Bugatti. Ironically, British brands McLaren and Aston Martin are among the most hated, including Lincoln and Jeep.
Key Findings
The most loved car brand in the world is American EV maker Tesla, which comes up top in 21 nations.
The most hated car brand is Ford, whose online hate spans 20 nations across the globe.
Italian automaker Maserati (now under the helm of Stellantis) is America’s most loved car brand.
Fiat is the most hated car brand in most of U.S. states, accompanied by Lincoln, Kia, and Ford.
Why do 20% of the people hate Aston Martin, it’s not that bad of a company!