Porsche Is King Of The Hill In J.D. Power APEAL Survey: Buyer's Remorse? Not Here

It’s tempting to look at the top ranks of the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 APEAL Study and conclude, “You get what you pay for,” because luxury brands have a lock on the top spots by brand – led by Porsche, which was No. 1 for the eighth year in a row.

The other Top 5 finishers in the survey results which were released today were Jaguar, BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Rounding out the Top 10 are Land Rover, Lexus, Cadillac, Infiniti and Acura.

That’s not to say people who buy mass-market brands don’t love their cars, too. On a model-by-model level (see below), regular-guy brands like Chevrolet, Dodge and Kia are among the winners for different product segments.

But on average, Porsche owners find their newly purchased Porsches more appealing than anybody else. If you said that was stating the obvious, you’d be right. It’s useful to think of the APEAL study as measuring buyer’s remorse, or lack thereof.

APEAL stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout. The researchers at J.D. Power sometimes call it the “things gone right” survey, as opposed to the better known J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, which measures “things gone wrong.”

That is, the APEAL survey gives people who bought a car within the last 90 days a chance to say what they like about their new car. IQS is APEAL’s evil twin. The IQS survey asks specific, detailed questions about things that don’t work properly or that in the owner’s opinion are designed poorly.

Respondents for both surveys are drawn from the same pool of people. In fact, the same individuals fill out both surveys – for this year’s APEAL and IQS surveys, it was people who registered a new car or truck from November 2011 to February 2012.

The twin surveys produce some schizophrenic results. That is, some brands score well on APEAL but poorly on IQS, and vice versa. Some do great on both. Some do poorly on both. Bear in mind that the same people fill out both surveys.

Land Rover, for instance, is in the Top 10 in APEAL, but the Bottom 10 in IQS. It appears that Land Rovers have an above-average number of bugs in them, but owners like them anyway. Conversely, Honda is near the top in IQS, but below-average in APEAL. That suggests Hondas are reliable but not especially exciting.

Porsche is one of those brands that throw off the grading curve for everyone else. It does great on both surveys. On the other hand, the Smart brand is at or near the bottom for both surveys.