J.D. Power Surveys 25,000 New Car Owners re Their car LIKES

09/20/96

Automotive researcher J.D. Power initiated another study of new car owners. This one looks at what they liked about their 1996 models, and the big three came out on top. Called the APEAL study (for Automotive Performance, Execution, And Layout), it focused on attributes instead of defects . . . and the winners are:

Compact cars
Pontiac Sunfire
Chevy Cavalier
Saturn sedan

Premium mid-sized cars
Pontiac Bonneville
Chrysler Sebring JX
Chrysler Concorde

Sport Cars
VW GTi
Saturn SC
Honda Prelude

Premium luxury cars
Lexus LS 400
BMW 7 series
Jaguar XJ sedan

Compact vans
Chrysler Town Country
Honda Odyssey
Dodge Caravan
Pontiac Trans Sport

Compact Pickups
Ford Ranger
Toyota Tacoma
Mazda B-series

Bill Maloney -- The Auto Channel