#j-d-power-associates

It turns out that millennials aren’t a car-hating generation and they actually do want to buy cars, just not how you might think.

Each year J.D. Power & Associates does a study that examines the most appealing cars to consumers and this year there is one big surprise. The Hyundai Genesis sedan topped the BMW 5 Series and Jaguar XF in the mid-sized luxury segment for the 2009 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study.

A new survey out of the U.K. by J.D. Power & Associated in association with automotive resource What Car? might be great new for Lexus… but it’s quite the opposite for both Chrysler and its new bosses at Fiat.

Car sales for the month of May appear to show a certain level of recovery – at least for U.S. automakers Ford and General Motors.

Ford posted a loss of 28.5 percent, its best result since July of 2008. As for GM, it declined “just” 29 percent marking its best monthly performance since September.

In total, auto sales in the U.S. were down 33.7 percent, the smallest drop since the recession really got going in October.

Helping to bring the national average down were Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda, which suffered 40.7 and 41.5 percent sales declines respectively.

Jeff Schuster of J.D. Power & Associates attributes the larger declines for Honda and Toyota more to the unusually high sales both companies saw in May 2008. During that period Honda actually set a monthly sales record as skyrocketing gas prices saw consumers turning away from domestic automakers to buy fuel-efficient imports.

Compared to 2007, in 2008 Honda and Toyota saw increases of 15.6 and 4.3 percent, while Ford and GM fell 15.9 and 27.5 percent.

Meanwhile Chrysler’s sales were understandably low as the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 1st of May. Sales were down 46.9 percent, despite some industry experts claiming that dealership liquidation sales would provide a boost in sales.

That bump may yet occur, and may now include sales of General Motors vehicles. The drastically reduced inventory is also expected to have the most impact on U.S. automaker Ford, which plans to launch strong incentive programs to attract consumers interested in domestic products.

[Source: Automotive News]

Full sales numbers for all automakers in the U.S. after the jump:

Jaguar has once again been awarded the top spot in the J.D. Power & Associates Sales Satisfaction Index (SSI) Study. After missing out for 2007, Jaguar’s return to the top of the list is the company’s fourth first-pace ranking in the past five years.

The Study, which has been run by J.D. Power for the past 22 years, is based on responses from 35,805 new-vehicle buyers who registered their vehicles in May 2008. The survey is based on five factors: the dealership facility, the sales staff, the paperwork and finance process, the delivery process and the vehicle price.

For 2008 Jaguar also placed first in the J.D. Power & Associates Customer Service Index (CSI) Study for the second year in a row.

Official release after the jump: