Here's a survey that maps almost perfectly to the kinds of cars we love to drive and write about at TechnoRide: It's the J.D. Power & Associates APEAL awards. According to Power, the APEAL measures "how gratifying a new vehicle is to own and drive." APEAL stands for automotive performance, execution, and layout.

Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and Lexus landed in the top five, while Honda won four segment awards for best models in categories. Technology must be part of the gratification mix: Four of the 10 winners in our second annual Digital Drive Award winners were rated tops in their APEAL segments. The companies behind the 10 winners placed second, third (two models), fifth, seventh, eighth, tenth, eleventh, and thirteenth out of 35 brands rated on the APEAL this year.

The APEAL is the second award in Power's triple crown of auto satisfaction surveys. The first is the Initial Quality Survey (IQS), which measures problems in the first 90 days of ownership. In the current incarnation of IQS, "problems" can include ease-of-use issues. The APEAL piggybacks onto the IQS survey and measures "owner delight with the design, content, layout and performance of their new vehicles"—also within the first 90 days. The third survey, out in late July or early August, is the Vehicle Dependability Survey, which measures reliability after three years of ownership. Porsche was first in both the IQS and APEAL surveys, with Lexus the reigning (long-term) champ on VDS.

What does the APEAL offer to guide would-be car-buyers? It shows which brands makes buyers feel best about their cars. It also shows how much they've spent. All the top 10 brands on the APEAL are premium-price automakers—combined, they offer just two models whose most basic configurations come in under $30,000.

So maybe the news from the APEAL isn't news at all: More expensive cars are more gratifying to drive around in. At the same time, look at how the mostly affordable Scion and Volkswagen brands (12 and 13) fare better than Mazda, Nissan, and Honda (16, 17, 18), which trump Toyota and Saturn (25, 26). This is another not-good-news survey for the traditional mainstream U.S. automakers, which all finished below average, with Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep in the bottom five along with Suzuki and Subaru. For them, it may be time for bold measures to regain customer interest. Such as? The fall introduction of the affordable Microsoft Sync music and Bluetooth adapter on Ford (27) and Mercury (29) as well as Lincoln (11) is going to drive tech-savvy customers into showrooms. Sync could well be the best deal in phone-and-music-player integration, when it becomes available.

You also can use the APEAL as a bargaining tool: Customers may not be beating down the doors to buy a car from a bottom-dweller brand, but if there's a model you like, you may find attractive pricing or lease deals. Just beware the less-appealing cars have lower resale or residual values, so lease deals won't be so sweet.

A word of caution about J.D. Power's rankings. On a 1,000-point ratings scale such as this one, Power will declare a winner even if it's by one point, regardless of the statistical margin of error. On this year's survey, eight points separate the top five, with winner Porsche and runner-up BMW separated by just two points with Mercedes-Benz three points further back. (The top three are unchanged for 2007.)

Big gains of 10 or more points were made by Scion, moving up from 18 place to 12; Jaguar, from 7 to 4; Cadillac, from 12 to 8; Saturn, from 26 to 20 (helped by the excellent Aura; and Mercedes-Benz, unchanged in third place. Actually, Jeep's score went up 15 points (fourth best), but it remained in 35th place, which this year is last place with the absence of last year's tail-gunner, Isuzu. (Mini, ninth last year, didn't have enough responses to make the survey.)

One brand fared markedly better on the APEAL than on the IQS: Land-Rover took ninth place on the APEAL but was number 35 (last) on the IQS. Hummer, number 19 here, was thirty-third on the IQS. Conversely, Honda, Toyota, and Mercury, 17, 25, and 29 (respectively) on the APEAL, were 4, 6, and 8 on the IQS. Translation: They're reliable cars with the controls placed where you expect them, but you drive them because you need transportation more than an emotional boost. In Honda's case, that's only half true: It builds a bunch of exciting cars and a bunch of the other kind. The Fit, CR-V, Ridgeline pickup, and Odyssey minivan were tops in their classes on the APEAL.