Genesis Tops Porsche in J.D. Power Customer APEAL Study

Hyundai Motor Co.’s Genesis luxury brand outscored Porsche to top this year’s U.S. Automotive Performance Execution and Layout (APEAL) study by J.D. Power.

Genesis gained 15 points from last year’s APEAL survey to capture 884 out of a possible 1,000, followed by Porsche at 883, which slipped by one point. The rest of the top five are BMW (863 points), Lincoln (861) and Mercedes-Benz (858).

The study tracks 77 feature to calculate the excitement and emotion bond new vehicles create with their owners. This year’s industry average score is 820, up 10 points from 2017. The average among luxury brands rose eight points to 851 compared with a 10-point gain to 814 for mass-market marques.

The bottom five brands in this year’s ratings are Nissan (806), Subaru (804), Jeep (799), Mazda (798) and Mitsubishi (783).

The most-improved brands for the 2018 model year are Mitsubishi (+33 points), Dodge (+29 to 824) and Jeep (+26). Jaguar, whose score fell 11 points to 827, posted the largest year-on-year decline because of a lack of new product, Power says.

On a model-by-model basis, the redesigned Lincoln Navigator large SUV scored the highest of all with 915 points.