Lexus falls in J.D. Power APEAL study as Subaru, Mini soar

The 20th annual APEAL study (for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) measures how gratifying it is to own and drive a particular model of new vehicle.

The top scorer was Porsche with 874, down from 882.

It found many people enjoyed newer safety features such as blind-spot monitoring, while voice-recognition technology continues to get spotty results from consumers. The vehicles were registered between February and May. “For me, that was very telling”, said Renee Stephens, vice president of USA automotive quality at J.D. Power. The study found that 36% of owners have the feature, a seven percentage-point increase versus past year. Industry-wide, the average APEAL score improved 4 points over 2014 to 798 this year.

The market research company says automakers and brands that have vehicles with high appeal can sell them faster, demand higher prices for them and they tend to have higher loyalty rates of repeat customers.

Stephens said Jaguar is in second place for a second year, and BMW moved up from sixth place to third. Mini is the highest-ranking non-premium brand in the study. It also ranks new-car appeal by brand.

Chevrolet, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat all were below the industry average.

At the bottom was Smart, with 683. The brand has a history of average or below-average showings in this study, but is often near the average for non-luxury brands. But the adoption of other safety technologies by buyers is also up.

FCA took home three segment wins. “How emotionally do they connect with their vehicles”. “This can go a long way toward generating positive feelings about their vehicle overall”. The average for non-luxury brands was 790, up from 785, and luxury brands had an average of 841, up from 840.

Premium brands typically fare better than non-premium brands in the APEAL study, but the gap is narrowing and is the smallest since 2006, Stephens said. “But it is just as important to show what makes them satisfied; what they like, whether styling, features, usability”, she said.