Premium vehicle marques often garner more intense responses from owners than mass-market brands, and Cadillac is no exception, ranking slightly below average while its three fellow core GM brands in the mass sector are above average, per the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study.
Cadillac scored 868 points out of a possible 1,000 in the APEAL study, J.D. Power reports, just below the Premium vehicle sector average of 870 satisfaction. Seven brands scored above average, including the first-place winner Porsche with a rating of 891 points.
Cadillac stayed in eighth place in the APEAL satisfaction rankings, though its score improved slightly from the 865 points owners rated it with in 2023. However, even with a marginally below-average score for its market, Cadillac ranks above all but the most popular mass-market brands, as premium marques tend to do.
Only a single Caddy model made it into the top three list of any of the smaller segments included in the study. The category in question is the “Large Premium SUV” segment, where the Land Rover Range Rover took first place but the 2024 Cadillac Escalade was second and the Mercedes-Benz GLS took third. This is perhaps unsurprising given the popularity of the Cadillac Escalade.
The study revealed that after two years of declines, customer satisfaction with vehicles in general is trending upward in the U.S. The root of this rising satisfaction is that “traditional manufacturers have listened to the Voice of the Customer,” and easy-to-use features, plus “improved interior storage and higher quality materials” are winning owners’ hearts and minds, per J.D. Power senior director Frank Hanley.
Cadillac’s increasing focus on EVs may help boost its score in the future, with “improved battery range and better interior materials” making owners more satisfied with non-Tesla electric vehicles for 2024. However, infotainment systems are an Achilles heel in satisfaction as “owners struggle to perform simple audio-related tasks” according to Hanley.
He added that ever-more-complex infotainment systems and interfaces “begs the question whether automakers are actually in tune with the desires and needs of their customers.”
The APEAL study collected data from 99,144 owners of 2024 vehicles with at least 90 days of ownership. The survey asked these owners to rate their satisfaction with 37 different characteristics of their vehicles and added these together to obtain a final score.
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Comments
Cadillac lost it years ago starting with the Cimmaron.
Congratulations on being Detroit’s okayest premium brand!
Well, not really. According to this study, they ranked behind Lincoln.
The value of the Apeal Study has always been somewhat dubious even for the companies that buy it.
I’d say Lexus isn’t too worried about their below average ranking given their doing just fine where it counts (sales).
*they’re