The APEAL study is not some small sampling of a few new car buyers. This year, it is based on responses from 84,555 owners of new 2023 model year vehicles who were surveyed after 90 days of ownership. The study was fielded from February through May 2023, based on vehicles registered from November 2022 through February 2023. Here are the ten categories the APEAL survey measures:
- Walking up to your vehicle
- Setting up and starting your vehicle
- Getting in and out of the vehicle
- Your vehicle’s interior
- Your vehicle’s powertrain
- Your vehicle’s driving feel
- Your vehicle keeping you safe
- Using the infotainment system
- Your vehicle’s driving comfort
- Fuel usage
In nine of those categories, customer satisfaction has declined since last year’s survey. The only factor to improve is fuel economy (771), which is up 15 points from 2022. The factor with the largest year-over-year decline is exterior, which decreased from 894 to 888. Satisfaction with exterior styling on new models in 2023 is particularly unremarkable, scoring only 3 points above carryover models.
We here at CleanTechnica have often remarked on how downright ugly many of today’s new cars are. They feature creases and crinkles in the sheetmetal that start nowhere and end abruptly for no apparent reason. Each manufacturer strains to create a distinctive frontend, but most of them wind up looking like the face of an angry shark. Styling has given way to branding.
The latest J.D. Power APEAL study finds that infotainment systems are a prime example of a technology not resonating with today’s buyers. Only 56% of owners prefer to use their vehicle’s built-in system to play audio, down from 70% in 2020. Less than half (45%, 37% and 43%, respectively) prefer to use their vehicle’s built-in system to make phone calls, give voice commands, or for navigation assistance. That suggests many prefer to use the features they are familiar with on their smartphones.
The APEAL study complements other studies from J.D. Power such as its US Initial Quality study and US Tech Experience Index study by measuring owners’ emotional attachment and level of excitement with their new vehicle. The APEAL study asks owners to consider 37 attributes, ranging from the sense of comfort they feel when climbing into the driver’s seat to their exhilaration when they step on the accelerator. The responses to questions about those attributes are aggregated to compute an overall APEAL Index score.
