A new survey by Consumer Reports shows that Honda currently enjoys the most brand loyalty, with 68% of current owners claiming that they are likely to purchase another Honda as their new car. Ford comes in second with 61% of its customers staying loyal to the brand. This marks an impressive 10 percentage point increase from just two months back when Ford was fourth on the list for brand loyalty, that was a slot lower than even Chevrolet.

The most notable movement in the list came from Toyota, a company that was long considered to be one of the most reputable automakers in the world. Month after month they took home the title of the automaker with the “Most Brand Loyalty”, however, with the highly publicized news of several quality and safety issues in several of their models, the automakers seem to have taken a hit in their brand loyalty – a gauge on how likely it is that a car owner will buy a new model from the same brand.

The telephone survey of 1,704 U.S. adults who currently owns one among the five most popular makes, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Honda, and Toyota shows that the Japanese automakers have slipped to number three in the rating with 57% of its customers claiming that they would buy a Toyota if they were to be buy a new car. This represents a steep 13 percentage point drop for the automakers who led the pack with a 70% probability of retaining a customer just a few months back in December, 2009.

At the same time, Chevrolet and Dodge just cant seem to compete, and appear to be heading towards oblivion with 49% and 24% brand loyalty respectively. These numbers are down from 57% and 32% from the December, 2009 survey. GM however seems to have a plan to get back on track, and year-to-date, sales for the Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX are up nearly 300 percent, at 110,176, compared to the vehicles they replaced.

“Clearly, our launch vehicles are hitting the mark with consumers who are looking for bold styling, quality, safety and fuel efficiency… The good news is that we have more on the way, including the all-new Buick Regal this spring and the Chevrolet Cruze in the third quarter,” said Steve Carlisle, vice president of U.S. Sales Operations, GM.

Toyota’s sales incentive during March increased substantially by 46% to $2,310 per vehicle. While these incentives have helped Toyota’s sales surge by 41% in March and 24.4% to 157,439 vehicles in April, the 57% brand loyalty will be worrisome, considering that these incentives wont last forever. Same with GM – whose incentive of $3,174 per vehicle (down 19% year over year) haven’t helped them retain their customer base. However, Ford capitalized on their incentive schemes in the order of $3,035 per vehicle (down 2% year over year), with quality that is soon catching up with its base.