New car buyers are happier with their new vehicles than ever. That’s according to the 30th annual J.D. Power APEAL study, which asks buyers about what they do and don’t like about their brand-new vehicles. The score this year is the highest since it redesigned the study in 2020, and the first time that every vehicle area has improved in the results in nearly a decade.
Porsche and Mini keep their places as the top brands for Premium and Mass Market, and BMW keeps the top spot for an individual vehicle. This time it’s the X6, the oddly-proportioned “coupe” SUV companion to the X5. Apparently, X6 buyers really like the styling, moreso than BMW 7 Series buyers. That’s the car that won last year, but the German brand’s high scores do show one thing: even tech-heavy models can do well with buyers who don’t always like high-tech stuff.
Study Measures How Happy New Car Owners Are
The J.D. Power Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) study is meant to measure how vehicles deliver a positive experience in the first 90 days. This covers areas like design, performance, usability, and perceived comfort rather than repair areas like the company’s other well-known annual reports.
If your company’s new vehicle makes new owners happy with its design, setup, performance, and 37 total attributes, it will score well on the study. That’s probably why Porsche has taken the top spot for the second consecutive year for premium brands. Mini, another brand that appeals to customers on an emotional level, also took the Mass Market top spot for the second year running.
Satisfaction with fuel economy saw the highest category increase this year, up 13 points. Infotainment and interior were also both up six points.
Look through the premium charts and you probably won’t see many surprises. Land Rover, Jaguar, Rivian, and Tesla all have high scores, while Audi, Acura, Infiniti, Volvo, and Lexus do not. Not many buyers are passionate about their new Q5, it seems.
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On the more mainstream side, Dodge and GMC come next after Mini, but brands are lumped much more closely. There are also surprises here, with Mazda, Subaru, and Jeep, brands we would expect to have enthusiastic shoppers, scoring poorly. While we don’t have the exact results, we’d bet that the infotainment systems of the first two and the agricultural experience of some Jeep off-roaders play a part.
BMW Group Gets Most Model Wins
Buyers who pick the first model year of a new generation have less emotional connection than buyers of carry-over models. J.D. Power suggests that’s related to buggy tech in brand-new models that often gets ironed-out in later years.
Another surprise is the popularity of user profiles. The study shows 55% of vehicle owners are creating user profiles in their vehicle for customized and stored settings, if possible. Owners with profiles set up had higher scores for emotional satisfaction.
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Infotainment systems are the worst offenders again, while the most dependable vehicle out there is a mid-engine German sports car.
BMW had the most award-winning models with the X6, X1, 4 Series, X4, and Mini Countryman getting segment prizes. Hyundai Group was next with the Santa Fe and Santa Cruz, and the Kia K4 and K5 getting class wins. The study is based on responses from 92,964 owners of new 2025 model year vehicles who were surveyed after 90 days of ownership.
Source: J.D. Power
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