New Beetle outpoints PT Cruiser in buyer survey

Although PT Cruiser mania has kept the price of the delivery-van-styled sedan in the stratosphere, New Beetle buyers are slightly buggier about their cars, according to a new-vehicle buyer survey by automotive marketing specialist J.D. Power & Associates.

The Agoura Hills, Calif., company's annual APEAL study -- that's not bad spelling but an acronym for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout -- found that in the battle of hot retro-styled models, Volkswagen's Bug outscored Chrysler's Cruiser in customer raves to take top place in the compact-car segment.

The study ranks cars and light trucks based on new owners' ratings of more than 100 characteristics in eight broad categories, including design, interior comfort, and engine and transmission performance.

Although Cruiser buyers feel good about most of the attributes of their vehicles -- and many have shown their strong feelings by paying as much as 50 percent over sticker price -- they hang their heads when it comes time to rate the engine and transmission package, Power researchers found.

The 2000 New Beetle, which has more engine-transmission offerings than the Cruiser, gets far better marks in that category from new owners, said Jacques daCosta, senior manager of product research at J.D. Power. The Cruiser finished second to the Beetle in the compact segment; Volkswagen's Golf captured the bronze.

Other key results of the 2000 APEAL study:

--Subaru is finally broadening is appeal as the Forester sport wagon -- which helped create the so-called crossover segment that blends cars and sport-utility vehicles -- took top spot in the mini-SUV category ahead of Toyota's RAV4 and Honda's CR-V.

--The redesigned S-Class luxury model by Mercedes-Benz has broken the BMW-Lexus stranglehold (they had previously traded the No. 1 and 2 rankings fairly regularly) on the premium luxury segment. Lexus dropped out of the top three this time, with BMW's 5-Series taking second place and its 7-Series third.

--Car and truck buyers are bored with recycled looks and are fast gravitating toward new vehicles or totally redesigned models. DaCosta calls them, collectively, the segment leaders. Of 200 models included in the study, 47 were new or redesigned, and 14 of those wound up in the top three of their respective categories -- the best showing ever by segment leaders, DaCosta said.