Porsche, Jaguar Lead J.D. Power APEAL Study

Porsche and Jaguar have taken top honors in this year’s J.D. Power Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) study.

The APEAL study is the industry’s benchmark for new-vehicle appeal with owners evaluating their vehicle across 77 attributes. Those scores are then combined into an overall APEAL score that is measured on a 1000-point scale. This year, the overall APEAL score averaged 794, marking a single-point decrease compared to last year.

“Manufacturers often look to new features and technologies to keep their vehicles fresh and attractive, but designing systems that consumers find intuitive and easy to use has been a challenge,” said Renee Stephens, vice president of U.S. automotive at J.D. Power.

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Porsche topped the overall automakers index ranking with a score of 882 while Jaguar came in second with 862. Audi (858) was third and Land Rover (853) came in fourth. Rounding off the top five was BMW with a score of 849.

“Newly launched models surpass carryovers in impressing owners with the look and feel of the vehicle. But as we also see in our 2014 Initial Quality Study, owners are not as comfortable with the functionality of the features,” Stephens said. “To differentiate new models from the pack, automakers must continue to design systems that are not just attractive, but also intuitive and easy to use.”

The study also found that APEAL scores for all-new and redesigned models continue to increase compared to carryover models, but satisfaction in fuel economy and the feel and styling of the interior ranks higher than new technologies such as voice recognition.

Here are the top vehicles in each segment: