According to a recent study, Toyota attracts the most loyal car buyers, with 13.7 percent of owners likely to keep their Toyota Prius for at least 15 years. This wasn't the only study where Toyota came out on top, however.

According to data analyzed by Compare the Market, Toyota was the most searched car brand on Google in 2020, reclaiming the top spot from BMW after the German automaker dominated Google search terms in 2019. BMW was the second most Googled car brand in 2020 followed by Mercedes-Benz, which has now finished in third place for the last three years.

According to the data analyzed from search results in 158 countries across 2018, 2019 and 2020, Toyota was the top searched brand in around a third (34.8%) of all countries, an improvement of 17.7 percent compared to the year before. Toyota's search volume in 2020 was estimated to be around 88.02 million.

New model launches in 2020 like the Corolla Cross and GR Supra likely increased Toyota's Google ranking in 2020. The rally-inspired GR Yaris also helped generate a lot of publicity for the Japanese automaker since it's one of the most exciting hot hatchback launches in years. By contrast, BMW's search ranking declined significantly from 2019 to 2020.

The German automaker ranked number one in 118 countries last year compared to 34 countries in 2020, representing a year-on-year drop of 64 percent. However, BMW remains the most searched car brand in the last three years despite only placing in first position in 2019, accounting for 38.3 percent of all top searches. For comparison, Toyota accounted for 31.3 percent of all top searches.

While BMW's search ranking declined in 2020, other automakers saw a boost in popularity. Kia and Ford ranked 4th and 5th respectively behind Mercedes-Benz after only appearing number one in a single country in 2019.