J.D. Power and Associates announced last week that for the first time in several years, new vehicle owners are less delighted in their recent purchases.

The study, nicknamed APEAL (Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) is in its 13th year of measuring owner delight with the content, design and layout of new vehicles, and functions as a complement to the J. D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study, which focuses on the problems that new owners experience within the first 90 days of possessing their vehicles. APEAL's measure of gratification encompasses more than 90 different vehicle attributes, and it has been shown that cars and trucks receiving high APEAL scores generally benefit from faster sales with few required consumer incentives, as well as higher sales margins.

average APEAL score for 2008 averages 770 on a 1,000-point scale and represents a 2-point decrease, with owner disappointment in fuel economy responsible for more than half the overall decline in score.

According to David Sargent, vice president for automotive research at J. D. Power and Associates, "Average prices at the fuel pump have increased by 27 percent in the period between the 2007 and 2008 APEAL studies, creating heightened sensitivity to fuel economy among new-vehicle owners." Sargent went on to say, "Even though more consumers are now achieving the gas mileage they expect compared with previous years, the increased cost of filling their vehicles still leads to a greater level of dissatisfaction with fuel economy than in the past. Manufacturers that deliver more fuel-efficient vehicles and integrate alternative fuel technology into their designs stand a better chance of delighting their customers and being successful in this rapidly changing marketplace."

APEAL scores for most performance measures have either declined or stayed the same since the 2007 study, with the only improvements in the areas of entertainment, navigation, and audio performance.