Autoblog

J.D. Power and Associates asked 19,000 potential car buyers what they want and what they're willing to pay for. Safety is apparently on the minds of many, with blind spot detection and backup assist taking the top two spots. But once consumers were told blind spot detectors would cost as much as $500, the device fell to No. 4 on the list, while a $300 backup assist jumped to No. 1. And a majority (73%) put in-dash navigation as No. 3 in popularity, but when told they'd have to pay an estimated $1,800 for it, it falls way down to No. 18. Hear that OEMs? Cheap nav is on a bunch of people's wish list.

With gas prices at record highs, 72% of the respondents said they were "probably interested" in a hybrid powertrain and 23% were "definitely interested." When told the system would add $5,000 to the cost of their ride, though, hybrids fall from fifth place to No. 8. Disappointingly, clean diesel technology comes in at the very bottom of the list with only 37% saying they would probably be interested.

We spoke with Mike Marshall, Director of Automotive Emerging Technology at JD Power, who said he was disappointed in the clean diesel interest but not really surprised. "We knew it wouldn't do that well," Marshall said. "One of the biggest things working against diesel is where people are coming from."

Hit the jump to read the rest of our interview and to view the full press release by J.D. Power and Associates.

UPDATE: We spoke to Mike Marshall, not Chris, and the survey queried 19,000 people, not 1,900. We've updated the post to reflect the corrections.

[Source: J.D. Power]