“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends.
So, oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.”

Janis never actually owned a Mercedes (that’s her Porsche above), but apparently she should have according to this note from Terry Box, via The Dallas Morning News.

More than two-thirds of Mercedes-Benz owners replace their vehicles with another Benz – the highest rate of retention in the industry.

A recent study by J.D. Power and Associates found that Mercedes-Benz increased its retention rate this year by 8 percentage points, to 67 percent. The next two highest rates were 64 percent for Honda and 61 percent for Toyota.

The industry average was 48 percent, approximately what it was in 2008.

As the auto industry becomes increasingly competitive, retention rates are critical to manufacturers.

“Mercedes-Benz has steadily improved its customer-retention rates during the past five years and in 2009 achieved the highest rate ever attained by a manufacturer since the inception of the study,” said Raffi Festekjian, director of automotive product research at J.D. Power.