For the second year in a row, Stellantis’ Dodge brand secured the top spot in a J.D. Power study that ranks the emotional appeal of new vehicles.
Dodge ranked highest among mass-market brands in 2021, according to J.D. Power’s Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study. The study asks owners to consider 37 new-vehicle attributes, such as comfort level in the driver’s seat or excitement felt when hitting the accelerator.
Owners’ responses are aggregated to compute an overall APEAL index and scores are measured on a 1,000-point scale, J.D. Power said.
Dodge received a score of 882, well above the average of 845 for mass-market brands.
Ram ranked second with 881 points. Dodge and Ram also finished in the first two spots in the 2020 study and both performed well in the 2021 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study.
“Dodge not only leads mass-market brands in APEAL this year, but also was a close second to sibling brand Ram in IQS earlier this year,” J.D. Power said in a statement.
Nissan ranked third among mass-market brands with 866 points. GMC and Ford rounded out the top five mass-market rankings with 861 and 858 points, respectively.
Toyota saw the largest gain in its mass-market rankings, moving up five places year over year.
