Hyundai has found its way to the bottom of the AutoGuide.com Lemon List, while this year, Audi comes out on top. While the methodology changed slightly this year, the goal remains: to provide a look into consumer sentiment surrounding each automaker using data gathered from millions of conversations from across our network of automotive communities.
Using proprietary software and natural language analysis, the data is pulled from conversations between users, then further refined to determine which of the mentions are legitimate complaints about lemons – not necessarily actual cars titled as lemons. As some forums are significantly larger than others, the total number of lemon mentions per brand is compared to the total amount of brand mentions, to keep each in perspective. The data is then further crunched and represented as lemons per 100,000 mentions. Any brand with less than 10,000 total mentions isn’t included in the report.