USA TODAY International Edition
Lexus on top as auto reliability is the best ever
Toyota dominates J.D. Power study as Porsche wins award for most dependable vehicle.
Toyota dominated a prestigious annual study on vehicle dependability, but General Motors was close behind and German automakers improved markedly this year.
Toyota’s luxury Lexus brand took the top slot in the 2019 J.D. Power U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study for the eighth straight year. Toyota’s namesake brand tied for second. Volkswagen Group’s Porsche shared the second-place spot and won the first-ever award for the most dependable vehicle in the industry: the Porsche 911 sports car.
GM’s Chevrolet and Buick placed fourth and fifth, respectively, among all brands.
The annual J.D. Power study gauges dependability of 3-year-old vehicles over the last 12 months, meaning this year’s survey assessed the 2016 model year.
Dependability is a key point of consideration for shoppers, and it typically factors into long-term resale values.
Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and VW all showed improvement, as every German automotive brand beat the industry average for the first time in the study’s 30-year history.
Fiat Chrysler’s Fiat brand was last, registering nearly 13 percent more problems than the next-worst brand, Land Rover. But the Chrysler brand delivered the most improvement of any brand, falling just short of the industry average. One brand that wasn’t tracked: Tesla, due to “insufficient sample size,” J.D. Power spokesman Kyle Reuter said in an email.
Of the 20 major vehicle segments tracked by J.D. Power, Lexus, Toyota, BMW, Chevrolet and Buick were the only brands that earned multiple mostdependable vehicle honors, with two each. At least three of the nameplates honored in this year’s study have since been discontinued or are poised to go out of production this year: the Buick LaCrosse, Buick Verano and Chrysler Town & Country. Several others have been redesigned.
The study, which measures the number of problems per 100 vehicles, found a 4 percent overall improvement for the industry from the previous year. That makes it the best-ever year for vehicle dependability. Still, “automakers are wrestling with problems such as voice recognition, transmission shifts and battery failures,” said Dave Sargent, vice president of global automotive at J.D. Power.