It is interesting to think about that feeling that one may have for their vehicle.
Have you ever heard of a “major appliance enthusiast,” someone who is emotionally attached to their refrigerator?
Many people name their cars. If they name their washing machine it is probably related to subpar performance and the name is predicated on an expletive.
Get A Horse
Perhaps the automotive enthusiasm goes back to the time when people road horses and, in some cases, were so close they were nearly centaurs. Think only of Roy Rogers and Trigger or the Lone Ranger and Silver.
Last week J.D. Power released its 2025 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study, which it describes as measuring “owners’ emotional attachment and level of excitement with their new vehicle.”
The study surveys people who owned model year 2025 vehicles for 90 days. They are asked about 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,” that are segmented into 10 categories.
In this year’s study there were responses from 92,964 owners.
Satisfaction is based on a 1,000-point scale.
The study has been conducted for 30 years, so this is far from being their first rodeo. (Horse references will now stop.)
Happier
The good news for both the manufacturers and the owners is that overall satisfaction is up compared to last year.
But this isn’t exactly some groundswell of love for vehicles as this year the overall number is 851, up four from 2024.
The category that has the biggest gain is, curiously, fuel economy. Who knew that people are so moved by miles per gallon?
Now there is a tricky bit in the scoring. Tesla doesn’t allow J.D. Power to contact owners in certain states, so there isn’t an entirely apples-to-apples comparison. However, Tesla is included in the results, as is Rivian, though in both cases their numbers are attached to an asterisk that indicates: “Brand is not rank eligible because it does not meet study award criteria.”
Still, the findings are notable.
J.D. Power separates Premium and Mass Market vehicles.
In the overall APEAL brand ranking—again, the 1,000-point scale—they calculate Rivian would score 896 and Tesla 892. The brand that leads the list officially is Porsche, at 890.
Sweet Emotion
The findings indicate that when it comes to “emotional satisfaction,” Premium brands do better than Mass Market brands. That is, Premium brands overall are up 11 points whereas it is a 2-point increase for the Mass Market brands.
Turns out that much of the Premium boost is from Tesla. With the exception of the Powertrain category, Tesla is up at least 20 points in the other nine. And it was up six in Powertrain, so it isn’t like it is losing ground.
And going back to the fuel economy topics, turns out that hybrids and plug-in hybrids are the types of vehicles that are bringing owners the most joy.
One of the things that those surveyed aren’t particularly happy with is predicated on something that OEMs undoubtedly think will make their customers pleased. Make things technically trickier in order to show just how Silicon Valley they are.
“The study find that owners of new models have lower levels of satisfaction with vehicle setup and start up—as well as infotainment systems—compared with owners of carryover models. This suggests that increasing technology and menu complexity remain persistent challenges for the industry,” said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power.
I recently served as one of the judges for Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX Awards, which put me behind the wheel of 33 contenders.
“Install a Digital Rubik’s Cube, Jenkins!”
It is remarkable to discover the number of OEMs that apparently think making things not merely counterintuitive but completely unthinkable makes the product somehow au courant.
There is methodology known as “user-centered design” that, if followed, pretty much eliminates confusion. Simply:
· Research, including interviews and observations of real people
· Definition of the problem(s) faced by those real people
· Idea generation to solve the problem(s)
· Prototyping, perhaps simply with tape and cardboard or more elaborately with 3D printing
· Testing with the real people
Odds are that if that practice was more uniformly followed throughout the auto industry the low scores found in APEAL would be high scores.
And how hard is that?
Notably it was discovered by J.D. Power that carryover vehicles had higher scores than new models, and that Premium models had more issues than Mass Market vehicles—and not by a little.
That is, the Premium carryover models scored 48 points higher in setup/startup and 26 higher in infotainment.
“No, Jenkins, we absolutely cannot have a knob to adjust the steering wheel! That’s far too common. Embed it in a screen selection, perhaps in the area where we have the side mirror adjustment.”
In one vehicle I drove for the judging it was necessary to precisely position a keycard on the center console to start it. Why is that a good idea? If someone has the card with them shouldn’t that be sufficient? Or is it really such a common thing to have to push a button to activate the vehicle such that it is unacceptable?
What’s interesting in the Mass Market space is that the top-two brands, although offering vehicles that are polar opposites of one another, both have (1) comparatively low sales volumes and (2) are the types of vehicles that if owners don’t outright name them, certainly have affection for them that far exceeds the average.
MINI scored highest in the Mass Market category at 876 points. In 2024 there were 26,299 MINIs delivered in the U.S.
Dodge came in second, at 868. In 2024 there were 141,730 Dodge models delivered.
Presumably buyers of both brands feel very strongly about their steeds vehicles.
Long-time automotive journalist Gary Vasilash is co-host of “Autoline After Hours” and is a North American Car, Truck & Utility of the Year juror. He is also a contributor to Wards Auto and a juror for its 10 Best Interiors UX and 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems awards. He has written for a number of outlets, ranging from Composites Technology to Car and Driver.
The TTAC Creators Series tells stories and amplifies creators from all corners of the car world, including culture, dealerships, collections, modified builds and more.
Check out Gary’s essay here and his Substack here.
[Images: Rivian, Porsche, Tesla, Ford, Chevrolet/General Motors]
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