J.D. Power's latest dependability study, which surveys the first three years of ownership, says Buick and Jaguar owners experience the fewest problems. Lexus, Toyota and Mercury rounded out the top five.
The single most dependable model was the Lexus LS 430. Toyota had the most segment winners with five (Highlander, Prius, Sequoia, Solara and Tundra).
There were a few other interesting pieces of information contained in the report. The average age of a used vehicle trade-in has risen from 65 to 73 months in the last three years. J.D. Power also said that overall problems have decreased at a rate of 10% a year since the beginning of the study.
brn says:
10:30 AM, 03/19/09
Another dumb #@$ survey.
In this one a squeaky windshield wiper is no different than a blown engine.
steve_ says:
10:39 AM, 03/19/09
JD Power changed their survey after the HUMMER got dinged so badly for poor mpg a few years back.
If you click through the link, you can read what the owners said were the top 5 most significant problems to them.
redliner says:
11:15 AM, 03/19/09
Being #1 must be very challenging. I see that Lexus has slipped.
ctpax says:
12:38 PM, 03/19/09
did anyone notice how all japanese models have one problem in common which is chipping/peeling paint. Most Ford's problems is vibrating brakes, which I can attest to.
Also a funny thing was that Ford's Ranger was ranked #1 among small pickups yet one of its problems was stalling/dying engine. Surely not the same thing as chipping paint...
brn says:
12:40 PM, 03/19/09
Steve, I did browse through the survey before posting.
Blown engines are going to be the exception, but it's still a fault in the survey. Small items will be more common, but large items will carry no more weight and they should.
Also, what do those small items have to do with "dependability"? In my opinion, dependability is a vehicle that gets you from point A to point B with no unexpected deviations. An example would be the Tundra. It has the unexpected deviation of going straight, even when you turn the steering wheel. Yet, it ranked #1 for full size pickups. That's not what I could consider dependable.
billt9 says:
12:57 PM, 03/19/09
brn,
Don't understand your argument.
JD Powers specifically separated out the engine/transmission category.
The component scores are weight on _severity_.
It's not just a straight up "how many problems do you have", they weighted the scores based on severity.
A blown engine is not the same as a squeaky wiper.
The scores are weighted.
billt9 says:
01:09 PM, 03/19/09
"Overall Dependability: Taken from the Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS), which looks at owner-reported problems in the first 3 years of new-vehicle ownership, this score is based on problems that have caused a complete breakdown or malfunction of any component, feature, or item (i.e., components that stop working or trim pieces that break or come loose). "
I don't see squeaky wiper included in the definition. The wiper must break and stop working.
brn says:
01:35 PM, 03/19/09
billt9, we're looking at two different surveys.
The one I'm looking at considers wind noise, hard to open sliding doors, excessive brake dust, materials soil easily, AC doesn't get cold fast enough, etc.
No where in the survey was I able to find anything about weighting of the scores. Can you point me to where you got the quote from?
greenpony says:
05:38 PM, 03/19/09
I'm surprised about Jaguar.
uncanny_man says:
11:10 AM, 03/20/09
I'm completely surprised by Jaguar. Shame that Ford had to sell them after bringing their products from the bottom to the very top of the reliability chart!