Ask an AI which car to buy, and the answer is Toyota
We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude which car brand to buy in 20 countries, each in its own language, and counted 560 answers in October 2026. Except on electric cars, Toyota was in 97.4% of them; on electric cars, in none.
Study by Guglielmo Paesano, founder of AIGROW · data under CC BY 4.0
- Answers
- 560
- Countries
- 20
- Languages
- 11
- With web search
- 39 of 40
Asked which car brand to buy, AI assistants answer Toyota. In October 2026, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude named it in 97.4% of 420 answers in 20 countries, each asked in its own language. Electric cars were the exception: there the assistants named Tesla, Hyundai and Kia, and never Toyota.
Findings
Answers without web search unless a finding says otherwise. A brand counts once per answer.
ChatGPT and Gemini named Toyota in 240 of 240 answers to which car brand to buy and which family car is reliable, in all 20 countries.
Each of them answered each question three times in every country, without web search. Claude, asked once, named Toyota in 19 of 20 answers to the first question and 20 of 20 to the second. On value for money, 130 of 140 answers from the three assistants named it.
Asked which brand makes the best electric car, the assistants named Toyota in 0 of 140 answers.
They named Tesla in 126, Hyundai in 122 and Kia in 108. On the other three questions, Toyota was in 409 of 420 answers (97.4%).
Toyota was the first brand named in 49.7% of answers, and a Japanese brand in 50.6%.
278 of the 559 answers that named a brand, the four questions together. An American brand came first in 105, 104 of them Tesla, and Dacia in 69.
In Italy, an Italian brand appeared in 5 of 28 answers, and in none of the 12 from ChatGPT.
Asked in Italian, the assistants named Toyota in 21 and Kia in 19. Home brands did better elsewhere: a Swedish brand was in 19 of 28 answers in Sweden, a German one in 18 in Germany, a French one in 15 in France and a Spanish one in 9 in Spain.
In the United States, Ford and Chevrolet were each named in 1 of 28 answers; Honda and Toyota in 21 each.
Both came from Claude: ChatGPT and Gemini named neither. The other American brands they named make only electric cars: Tesla in 7 answers, Rivian in 6 and Lucid in 3.
In Germany, the brand named most was Czech: Škoda, in 22 of 28 answers.
Volkswagen was in 12, BMW in 11 and Mercedes-Benz in 7; at least one German brand in 18. Škoda is based in the Czech Republic and owned by the Volkswagen group.
With web search on, Toyota was still in 39 of 40 answers to which car brand to buy.
ChatGPT and Claude answered the first question once more in each country, searching the web before they answered. Without web search, Toyota was in 139 of 140 answers to the same question.
Asked in United States
28 answers in English, the four questions together: 12 from ChatGPT, 12 from Gemini and 4 from Claude.
| Brand | Maker based in | Answers | ChatGPT | Gemini | Claude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honda | Japan | 21 | 9 | 9 | 3 |
| Toyota | Japan | 21 | 9 | 9 | 3 |
| Subaru | Japan | 18 | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| Hyundai | South Korea | 17 | 5 | 8 | 4 |
| Mazda | Japan | 12 | 1 | 9 | 2 |
| Kia | South Korea | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Lexus | Japan | 7 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Tesla | United States | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Rivian | United States | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| BMW | Germany | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Country by country
28 answers in each country, without web search, the four questions together. A home brand is one whose maker is based in that country.
| Country | Named most | Answers | Toyota | A home brand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Car brands in Australia | Hyundai, Kia | 24 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Austria | Hyundai, Škoda | 22 | 17 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Belgium | Škoda | 22 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Brazil | Hyundai | 21 | 20 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Canada | Toyota | 21 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Denmark | Kia, Škoda | 23 | 20 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in France | Toyota | 21 | 21 | 15 |
| Car brands in Germany | Škoda | 22 | 20 | 18 |
| Car brands in Ireland | Hyundai | 22 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Italy | Toyota | 21 | 21 | 5 |
| Car brands in Mexico | Toyota | 21 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Netherlands | Kia | 26 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Norway | Toyota | 20 | 20 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Poland | Kia | 24 | 20 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Portugal | Kia | 24 | 21 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in Spain | Kia | 27 | 21 | 9 |
| Car brands in Sweden | Kia | 23 | 21 | 19 |
| Car brands in Switzerland | Škoda | 23 | 20 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in United Kingdom | Kia | 22 | 20 | No maker based there |
| Car brands in United States | Honda, Toyota | 21 | 21 | 8 |
The brands named most
All 560 answers without web search. Named first counts the answers where the brand came before any other.
| Brand | Maker based in | Answers | Named first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota | Japan | 409 | 278 |
| Kia | South Korea | 362 | 25 |
| Hyundai | South Korea | 347 | 15 |
| Škoda | Czechia | 293 | 27 |
| Honda | Japan | 153 | 0 |
| Tesla | United States | 149 | 104 |
| Volkswagen | Germany | 137 | 7 |
| Volvo | Sweden | 132 | 6 |
| Dacia | Romania | 121 | 69 |
| BMW | Germany | 111 | 3 |
| Mazda | Japan | 97 | 4 |
| Subaru | Japan | 54 | 0 |
The four questions
As asked in the United States. Every country was asked the same four, naming the country, in its own language.
- 1Which car brand would you recommend buying in the US?
- 2I want to buy a reliable family car in the US. Which brand should I choose?
- 3Which car brand offers the best value for money in the US?
- 4Which brand makes the best electric car you can buy in the US?
How the study was made
- The answers
- 560 answers without web search, collected on 5 and 6 October 2026: ChatGPT and Gemini answered each question three times in each country, Claude once. ChatGPT and Claude also answered the first question once with web search, 40 answers counted apart.
- In the local language
- Each question named the country and was asked in its language: 20 countries, 11 languages. A question an assistant failed to answer counts nowhere.
- Once per answer
- A brand counts once in an answer however often it is written. Spellings of one brand are merged, such as MG Motor and MG, and a name covering two brands, such as Hyundai/Kia, counts for both.
- Where a brand is from
- A brand is from the country its maker has its headquarters in, which is not always who owns it: Škoda is Czech and part of the Volkswagen group, Volvo and Polestar are Swedish and owned by Geely, and MG is run from Shanghai by SAIC. So the United Kingdom has no home brand in the study.
- Answers, not a ranking
- The figures describe what the assistants answered on these dates. They do not rate the cars or say which answer is right.
- The source
- The car brand pages of the October 2026 AIGROW Index, one page per country. The CSV has one row per country and brand, with the answers from each assistant.
Rankings from the AI Visibility Index
See which businesses and products ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok named for the categories and places below.
Data and citation
Guglielmo Paesano, AIGROW. Which car brand AI assistants recommend, October 2026, aigrow.gg/research/ai-car-brands-2026. The figures and the data are published under CC BY 4.0: reuse them with a link to this page.
Download the data as CSV · Download the data as JSON
The October 2026 answers are archived for citation on Zenodo: DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23188442.
For the press: Guglielmo Paesano, founder of AIGROW and author of the study, answers questions about it by email at hello@aigrow.gg.
About the author: Guglielmo Paesano founded AIGROW, which measures how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok answer the questions buyers ask, and publishes the AIGROW Index of the businesses they name in 20 countries.
Which business do they name instead of yours?
The free scan asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok your own customers' questions and shows who they name instead of you.
Edition October 2026 · data under CC BY 4.0