{"id":133692,"date":"2019-02-13T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=133692"},"modified":"2019-02-13T00:11:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T05:11:46","slug":"toyota-lexus-may-still-rule-but-japanese-no-longer-dominate-vehicle-reliability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2019\/02\/toyota-lexus-may-still-rule-but-japanese-no-longer-dominate-vehicle-reliability\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota, Lexus May Still Rule, But Japanese No Longer Dominate Vehicle Reliability"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Prius is one of the vehicles that helped Toyota lead the latest J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toyota and its luxury arm Lexus captured the top spots among mainstream and premium brands in the latest J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study, but the 2019 VDS also delivered more than a few surprises when it comes to how three-year-old vehicles are holding up.<\/p>\n

The study placed Lexus at the top of the charts, followed by Porsche and then Toyota, but Chevrolet nabbed the fourth spot, a significant turnaround for a brand struggling to convince potential buyers it has overcome the quality and reliability issues of the past.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
News Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new Power VDS shows that Japanese automakers no longer have a lock on vehicle dependability. Tellingly, only Toyota and Lexus landed in the top 10 this year, while the list also included two American brands, four from Germany and both of the\u00a0South Korean carmakers operating in the U.S.: Hyundai and Kia.<\/p>\n

Overall, the 2019 VDS found owners reporting 4% fewer problems with their vehicles this year \u2013 the study looking at problems with 2016 model-year cars, trucks and crossovers.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Porsche takes the top spot in 2018 Power Sales Satisfaction Index. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cVehicles are more reliable than ever, said Dave Sargent, Power\u2019s vice president of automotive research, though he added that the study showed some key issues remain, notably with voice recognition systems, transmission shifts and battery life.<\/p>\n

The latter problem, Sargent explained, reflects all the new technologies being loaded into vehicles that can over-tax conventional vehicle batteries. He also warned that some of the new advanced driver assistance systems, like Lane Departure Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking, that automakers have begun rolling out are causing headaches that could show up in lower scores on the VDS in the years ahead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The 2019 study had some surprises, starting with Chevy\u2019s strong performance. \u201cThey\u2019re the star of the GM line-up now,\u201d said Sargent, noting that Chevrolet owners surveyed for the VDS reported having an average of just 115 problems per 100 vehicles \u2013 115 PP100 in Power-speak \u2013 compared to 108 for Toyota. (And, putting things another way, that translates into an average of just 1.15 complaints about absolutely anything going wrong with an average Chevy vehicle over those three years of ownership.)<\/p>\n

GM\u2019s Buick brand also did well, slipping into fifth place, but the automaker\u2019s two other North American brands didn\u2019t fare nearly as well. GMC clocks in at a weak 161 PP100 \u2013 compared to an industry average of 136 \u2013 while lofty Cadillac fell into the bottom third of the industry, at 166.<\/p>\n

(<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for details about how infotainment\u00a0systems are\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>improving, according to JD Power.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even so, \u201cCadillac is the most improved of all the premium brands this year,\u201d said Sargent, who also placed Mini, Subaru and Volkswagen on the \u201cmost improved\u201d list. British-based Mini actually managed to outperform its own parent, BMW, this year, coming in just behind Buick as the number six brand.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the year\u2019s bigger surprises came from Honda. With a score of 146, it was well below average and barely mid-pack while its own luxury brand, Acura, landed sixth from the bottom, something that Sargent attributed to problems with all-new products that came to market three years ago with some serious problems. That includes the then-new 2016 Honda Civic.<\/p>\n

Three European brands anchored the 2019 Power VDS, with Fiat at a rock bottom average 249 problems per 100, or nearly 2.5 times the headaches of a typical Toyota. Land Rover and Volvo scored only slightly better, with Fiat Chrysler\u2019s Dodge and Ram finishing out the bottom five.<\/p>\n

(To see more about the Power study finding a \u201ctotal lack of trust\u201d in autonomous tech,\u00a0<\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking forward, Sargent said automakers are \u201cdesperate\u201d to improve reliability as it serves as a \u201cbrand foundation,\u201d improving loyalty rates, raising residuals \u2013 or trade-in values \u2013 and reducing the need for incentives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unsurprisingly, Toyota and its luxury arm Lexus captured the two of the top three spots among mainstream and premium brands in the latest J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study. But the 2019 VDS did deliver a few surprises when it comes to what brand’s three-year-old vehicles are holding up. TheDetroitBureau.com has the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12],"tags":[],"make":[36,41,43,45,64,75,86,97,111],"post-state":[],"category_old":[150,151,205,192,123,185,195,299,236,258,132,229,125,182,122,139,206,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133692"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=133692"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=133692"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=133692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}