Are you willing to trade "down"
Bryce G. Hoffman -
DETROITNEWS - July 26, 2012
More American motorists are trading down to smaller vehicles, and more of them are happy with their choices, according to the annual J.D. Power and Associates APEAL study released Wednesday.
The APEAL survey asks consumers to rate their new car or truck on more than 80 attributes, including performance, execution and layout. It found that 27 percent of new-vehicle buyers purchased an automobile in a smaller-size segment than the one they replaced, while just 13 percent traded up for a larger vehicle. And new owners are rating their small cars much higher than before.
"Customers are rating their vehicles higher than they've ever done. As customers trade in older vehicles for new vehicles, they're finding them dramatically improved particularly when it comes to smaller cars," said David Sargent, vice president of global automotive at J.D. Power. "People really aren't making much of a sacrifice by downsizing. These are not the econoboxes we saw in the past."
Overall, General Motors Co. had the most segment-leading vehicles in this year's study three of them, all Chevrolets. But Chevy was rated below average in the overall brand rankings, as were all of GM's brands except Cadillac. It was the highest-ranked domestic brand.
"GM is essentially flat compared with last year," Sargent said. "They didn't have many new vehicle launches, so that makes it hard to improve. But they have a lot of product coming."
GM said the results of the survey will help it make those vehicles even better.
"Hearing what goes right from our customers leads the way for our quality journey from good to great," said Alicia Boler-Davis, vice president of global quality and U.S. customer experience. "Transferring lessons from Chevrolet Sonic and Volt owners can help us with future customers."...
[Read More]
Linear Mode
