Lexus once again tops JD Power dependability study

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It's the 14th straight year Toyota Motor Corp.'s high-end brand has held the top position in the annual study, which measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years. Lexus had 120 problems per 100 vehicles, down from 145 last year.

"That's a pretty good track record," said Dave Sargent, J.D. Power's vice president of automotive research. "They benefited to some degree ... where a couple of their very important models in their second year on the market the ES and the RX, which together account for over two-thirds of lexus sales both improved significantly."

Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury brand ranked second, followed by General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac. Toyota was fourth, and Honda Motor Co.'s Acura luxury brand was fifth. Land Rover, which Ford sold this year to India's Tata Motors Ltd., was the worst-performing brand, with 344 problems.

The industry average improved to 206 problems per 100 vehicles, from 216 a year ago.

Buick, owned by GM, fell to sixth place in this year's study with 163 problems, although its now-discontinued Buick Century was the top-ranked vehicle in the midsize car segment.

"The lower score is largely due to vehicles that are no longer in the marketplace," Sargent said. "The vehicles are still out there, so the study is still relevant. But obviously they had some problems."

Buick spokeswoman Debbie Frakes said J.D. Power's study is only one of several that the company focuses on.

"Obviously we're disappointed not to have been at the top, but as a brand we consistently rank high in many, many quality studies," she said.

GM's Saab brand was the most improved in this year's study, improving to 254 problems from 319. More than 60 percent of the 38 brands in the study improved from last year.

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