Harris Interactive derives its rankings by surveying U.S. consumers ages 15 and older online. The 2013 awards are based on a sample of 38,814 consumers, who were selected randomly from a Harris Interactive database of more than a million "cooperative residents."
Each respondent was asked to rate 40 randomly selected brands, Harris Interactive said, considering elements like familiarity, quality and purchase consideration.
Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings.
Data were weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. population of consumers ages 15 and over based on age by sex, education, race/ethnicity, region, income. Data from respondents ages 18 and over were also weighted for their propensity to be online.
This is the same weighting approach Harris uses calling elections.
Other auto service brands ranked, in order, were: Valvoline Instant Oil Change; National Tire and Battery (NTB); Pennzoil 10 Minute Oil Change Center; and WalMart Tire & Lube Express.
In 2012 Discount Tire ranked third behind AAMCO Transmissions and Belle Tire, and in 2011 it didn't rank among the 13 brands listed.
Other auto service center brands in study that ranked below category average were (listed alphabetically): AAMCO Transmission; Firestone Complete Auto Care; Havoline xpress lube; Jiffy Lube Oil Change Centers; Meineke Car Care Center; Midas Auto Service Express; Mobil 1 Lube Express; PepBoys Automotive Service Centers; Precision Tune Auto Care; and Sears Automotive Centers
Other tire brands ranked behind Michelin, Goodyear and Pirelli were Yokohama and BF Goodrich (a Michelin brand). In 2012 BFG was rated No. 1 ahead of Bridgestone and Continental; Michelin was rated 10th a year ago but first in 2011.
