Trust Is the Scarcest Currency
Updated: 3 hours ago
By Johannes Roth, CURTH+ROTH
52 percent of Germans would consider buying a Chinese car. Hardly anyone actually does. Chinese brands hold a market share of 2.4 percent in Germany and 8.0 percent in Europe (study by the consultancy Horváth).
Openness is not trust. 29 percent of respondents generally do not trust Chinese brands. 44 percent are concerned about quality issues.
Trust is built through quality and personal experience. Consumers named both as the most important reasons as early as 2015.
Brands that are struggling today can be read the same way. Three patterns stand out.
All of them revolve around a credibility credit that is either being used up or newly taken out.
Group 1: When corporate logic shapes the profile
For some brands, platforms and portfolio decisions determine what the brand stands for. As a result, the profile weakens.
Lancia sold only 11,754 vehicles in 2025, down from 32,651 in 2024, a decline of 64 percent. There is just one model, the Ypsilon. It is considerably more expensive than its predecessor and sits within the group alongside the Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa. Today, Fiat manages Lancia as a specialty brand.
Alfa Romeo confirmed its model strategy in May 2026. The Giulia and Stelvio will run through 2027. What their successors will look like remains open. "New interpretations" are under review.
Seat will be replaced as a car brand by Cupra by 2030. The Volkswagen Group considered it uneconomical to invest in both brands.
Infiniti withdrew from Western Europe in 2020. In Germany, it sold just 762 vehicles in 2018. Its best-selling model, the Q30, was based on the Mercedes A-Class platform.
Whether a lack of identity is the cause cannot be proven this way. Still, the pattern is striking. Where platforms and corporate logic define the profile, it becomes harder to say what makes the brand unique.
Group 2: The purchased credibility credit
Anyone who buys an established brand acquires a credibility credit, but not trust. That credit includes awareness, heritage and a dealer network. It is only redeemed through the product and through how the brand behaves after the acquisition.
Many well-known brands now have new owners. Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and Lynk & Co belong to Geely. Smart is a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely. MG belongs to SAIC. Jaguar and Land Rover belong to Tata Motors.
Smart shows how blurry perception can be. The Horváth study lists Smart among the Chinese brands, with 52 percent awareness. In 2024, Smart's head of Europe said the brand is perceived as European. Both statements stand side by side. Which view prevails among customers remains open.
A 2026 HBR article describes how brands under owners from emerging markets often gain new momentum. The prerequisite is a restrained, long-term integration. However, the examples cited come from consumer goods, not the auto industry.
For car brands, the key question is therefore: does the product still match the original promise after the change in ownership?
Group 3: When visibility fades
A brand no one thinks of has a hard time building trust. Several Japanese brands have only a small presence in Germany.
Honda reached 7,269 new registrations in 2025, up 1.4 percent. That corresponds to a market share of around 0.25 percent. Its dealer network is being reduced from 159 to 119 locations.
Nissan recorded 32,546 new registrations, 18.7 percent fewer than the previous year. Globally, the company is closing seven of its 17 plants. In Germany, it still aims to reach 50,000 vehicles by 2027.
Mitsubishi grew to 18,897 new registrations (+38.2 percent). Almost half of these were self-registrations: 49.8 percent, and over 80 percent in December. Nissan's rate was 43.5 percent.
Lexus presents a different picture. The brand clearly stands for reliability and hybrid powertrains. Even so, new registrations from January to August 2026 came to 2,305, 29.7 percent below the previous year.
Self-registrations and discounts can influence customers' perceptions of price and value. That is not proven here. Lexus also shows that a clear profile alone is not enough. Dealer network, price and awareness have to be right as well.
The common denominator: a promise that holds
The three groups have different causes. Technology, markets, corporate structures and timing each play a role. Still, a pattern is recognizable.
In Group 1, the brand promise has become blurred. In Group 2, it is borrowed and still has to be redeemed. In Group 3, too few people see it.
In every case, the same question arises: what promise can the brand credibly make, and how does it become tangible in customers' everyday lives?
This piece looks at established brands. New brands growing without a long tradition are a topic of their own.
What positioning can achieve
Solid positioning answers two questions. What does the brand stand for? And what is it allowed to promise?
Depth-psychological market research helps here because it explores the meanings and feelings people associate with a brand. These are often unconscious and difficult to capture with conventional surveys. This yields concrete answers:
What does the brand mean to people who know it?
What expectations are tied to its origin and ownership?
How much credibility credit is left, and what is it enough for?
Which promises can the brand keep, and which can't it?
Research does not replace decisions. Nor can it prevent brands from running into trouble. The issues are too complex for that. Technology, price, distribution and corporate strategy all play a part. Companies often have the knowledge, but don't always use it.
Research is effective when it feeds into decisions. It shows what a brand can carry. Then it becomes possible to choose a promise that fits the brand and that customers experience in their everyday lives.
How much credibility credit does your brand have, and what is it enough for? Let's talk about it. Send me a message or schedule a no-obligation conversation. We'll find out together.
More from our automotive series: Ferrari Luce: Slammed and Still Sold Out?, Technology openness is not protection of the status quo, Brand trust is the automotive industry's most important asset and How new car brands are truly earning trust today.
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