In their meta-analysis Rao and Monroe (1989) examined fifty-four price-perceived quality relationships. The mean effect size, (eta)2, was a statistically significant 0.12. In a subsequent study Dodds, Monroe and Grewal (1991) noted "… findings suggest that consumers are less likely to rely on the presence of a price-quality relationship for a particular product class in order to rely on the familiar information cues of brand and store name … for higher priced products that are purchased infrequently, the strength of the price cue may be diminished in the presence of other, more well-known cues." The purpose of the current study is to examine the price-perceived quality for the highest-priced of branded consumer products, namely the automobile.
