The 17th Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study by J.D. Power India confirms that Indian car buyers hold vehicle exterior styling as an important factor while buying their vehicles. The study has inferred the fact for the fourth consecutive year with Hyundai and Toyota walking out with three awards each.
The India APEAL study is based on owner evaluations during the first two to six months of ownership of the vehicle. Grounded in 30 major cities between May and September 2015, the 2015 edition of the study is deduced by evaluations from 8,428 owners of new vehicles purchased between November 2014 and July 2015.
Overall APEAL performance is reported as an index score based on a 1,000-point scale, with a higher score indicating higher satisfaction. The overall APEAL score averages 846 in 2015, down 8 points from 2014. There is an increase in the importance of vehicle exterior pertaining to small car, midsize and utility vehicle segments.
The study calculates owner satisfaction across ten categories such as vehicle exterior; vehicle interior; storage and space; entertainment/navigation systems; seats; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC); driving dynamics; engine/transmission; safety features and fuel economy.
The key facts realized by the study are that 89% of the satisfied customers say that they “definitely would” recommend their model to other buyers while 76% state that they “definitely would” repurchase from the same carmaker. Preference to entertainment/navigation and safety features and installation rates for ABS, airbags, hands-free communication systems and parking assist/sensors have substantially increased. Lastly, consumers are more attracted to feature-rich vehicles. The feature-rich vehicles score higher in overall APEAL, compared to those without these features.
Check out the statistics below drawn by the J.D. Power 2015 India APEAL Study.
Toyota and Hyundai have won three awards each across three different segments. While Volkswagen Vento ranks highest in the midsize segment and Mahindra XUV 500 ranking high in the SUV segment.
Earlier, Hyundai’s Eon, i10, and Elite i20/Active and Toyota’s Etios and Innova also topped in their respective segments in the J.D. Power 2015 India Initial Quality Study.