BMW 'most valuable car brand'

BMW has overtaken Toyota as the world's most valuable car brand, according to an annual industry report.

Millward Brown's report looks at both brand power and financial performance. The report said the car industry as a whole had lost 15 per cent in brand value over the past 12 months due to falling sales and the recession.

"While several brands did well, the central story of the recession was more about which brands declined the least in sales and value," said the report.

BMW's brand was valued at $21.82 billion, which was down nine per cent on its value last year. Toyota's brand value was rated at $21.77bn, a fall of 27 per cent on last year.

Honda was rated third ahead of Mercedes, Porsche, Nissan, Ford, VW, Audi and Renault. All of the top 10's brand value was lower than this time last year, apart from Ford, VW and Audi.

The strong performance of VW and Audi was put down to the pair being "viewed as trustworthy brands with style, global distribution, German engineering, and lower prices than prestige makes such as BMW and Mercedes".

Next year, Millward Brown expects to see Hyundai and Kia entering the top 10, while several Chinese manufacturers are also expected to gain in brand value.