GS69

Jaguar, Buick Dethrone Lexus in Reliability Survey

NEW YORK – British luxury carmaker Jaguar surged to the top of J.D. Power and Associates' closely watched vehicle dependability study this year, tying Buick for the No. 1 spot and dethroning Lexus for the first time since the Japanese luxury brand has been a part of the survey.

Lexus, Toyota Motor Corp.'s luxury brand, took the next spot in the study released Thursday, followed by Toyota's namesake brand, then Mercury, Infiniti and Acura.

"Buick and Jaguar both lead the industry in nameplate performance," said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis at J.D. Power. "In terms of individual model performance, Lexus and Toyota still do very, very well."

The annual study measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years. Suzuki owners reported the most problems among the 37 brands assessed by J.D. Power.

Despite losing its crown to Jaguar and Buick, Lexus still swept top awards in four segments, while Toyota's namesake brand took five awards. General Motors Corp.'s Buick LaCrosse was J.D. Power's top midsize car, while Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln brand took two awards. Chrysler LLC, which took no segment awards last year, won top honors for its Dodge Caravan in the van segment.

Jaguar's sudden jump to the top from its No. 10 spot in 2008 was notable for a study that is fairly consistent from year to year. Oddes said the brand has made significant improvements across many areas.

"We see improvements all over the board with Jaguar," Oddes said, citing fewer reported problems with vehicle exterior, sound system and the overall driving experience. "The improvement at a nameplate level is significant."

Still, Jaguar, which Indian car giant Tata Motors Ltd. bought from Ford in 2007, remains a relatively small-volume brand in the U.S. It sold just 14,000 vehicles here in 2008, while Buick sold 128,000.

Oddes said this year's study was redesigned to exclude routine fixes from a vehicle's list of problems. For example, the study no longer counts tire or windshield wiper replacements as a reportable problem. The intended result is a study that focuses on actual glitches with a vehicle, Oddes said, though it also makes it difficult to make year-over-year comparisons.

"We cleaned up the survey to really try to focus in on things that are truly broken," he said.

The industry average was 170 problems per 100 vehicles, or somewhat less than two problems per vehicle. Last year, the industry average was 206 problems per 100 vehicles, but year-over-year improvements this year are much less pronounced when accounting for the changes in the study's methodology, Oddes said.

The most frequently reported problem was wind noise, followed by brake noise, peeling paint, brake vibrations and problems with a vehicle's lights, Oddes said. The problems have been fairly consistent from year to year, he said.

J.D. Power's dependability study surveyed 46,313 original owners of 2006 model-year vehicles in October 2008. The results are watched closely by automakers and are often used in advertising. Owners' opinion of a car after three years can be a major influence on their opinion to buy that brand again.

The firm also releases an initial quality study, which measures problems in the first 90 days of ownership.

Gekko

WTF? something sounds fishy to me. jaguar goes from #10 in 2008 to #1 in 2009? did someone get bribed?

D.Jobin

iTrader: (4)

Being in the business, Ive learned: money talks

IS-SV

The source (JD Powers) is all I need to know.

speedflex

Wait a minute. So Power is to be trusted when Lexus is on top but not otherwise? Truth is Lexus has been sliding for a while now while others have been improving so it's not a real surprise to me.

Gojirra99

2009 Nameplate Ranking

Problems per 100 Vehicles

Buick 122
Jaguar 122
Lexus 126
Toyota 129
Mercury 134
Infiniti 142
Acura 146
Lincoln 147
Cadillac 148
Honda 148
Porsche 150
Audi 159
Ford 159
Hyundai 161
Subaru 162
Chrysler 165
BMW 166
Industry Average 170
GMC 174
Mercedes-Benz 184
Chevrolet 185
Mitsubishi 185
Volvo 186
Nissan 199
Dodge 202
MINI 205
Saturn 211
Kia 218
Jeep 220
Pontiac 220
HUMMER 221
Scion 222
SAAB 226
Mazda 227
Isuzu 234
Land Rover 238
Volkswagen 260
Suzuki 263


Top Three Models per Segment
Car Segments

Sub-Compact Car
Highest Ranked: Scion xA
Suzuki Aerio
Chevrolet Aveo

Compact Car
Highest Ranked: Toyota Prius
Toyota Matrix
Pontiac Vibe

Compact Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Mazda MX-5 Miata
Subaru Impreza
Pontiac Solstice Convertible

Midsize Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Toyota Solara
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Ford Mustang

Midsize Car
Highest Ranked: Buick LaCrosse
Toyota Camry
Mercury Milan

Large Car
Highest Ranked: Mercury Grand Marquis
Buick Lucerne
Mercury Montego

Compact Premium Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Nissan 350Z
Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class
Acura RSX

Entry Premium Vehicle
Highest Ranked: Lincoln Zephyr
Cadillac CTS
Infiniti G-Series

Midsize Premium Car
Highest Ranked: Acura RL (tie)
Lexus ES 330 (tie)
Infiniti M-Series

Large Premium Car
Highest Ranked: Lexus LS 430
Lincoln Town Car
Cadillac DTS

Premium Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Lexus SC 430
Porsche 911
Chevrolet Corvette


Top Three Models per Segment
Truck / Multi-Activity Vehicle (MAV) Segments
Compact MAV
Highest Ranked: Honda Element
Honda CR-V
Mitsubishi Outlander

Midsize MAV
Highest Ranked: Toyota Highlander
Toyota 4Runner
Buick Rainier

Large MAV
Highest Ranked: Toyota Sequoia
Chevrolet Tahoe
Ford Expedition

Large Pickup
Highest Ranked: Toyota Tundra
Ford F-150 LD
GMC Sierra LD

Midsize Pickup
Highest Ranked: Ford Ranger
Honda Ridgeline
Toyota Tacoma

Van
Highest Ranked: Dodge Caravan
Ford Freestar
Toyota Sienna

Midsize Premium MAV
Highest Ranked: Lexus GX 470
Acura MDX
Lexus RX 330/RX400h

Large Premium MAV
Highest Ranked: Lincoln Mark LT
Land Rover Range Rover Sport
Lincoln Navigator


About J.D. Power and Associates

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, Web intelligence and customer satisfaction. The company's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. For more information on car reviews and ratings, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone ratings, and more, please visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Very true. I hope Jag keeps the quality up because I'm loving the new XF

speedflex

What seems to be sadly consistent are the mediocre showings of the premium German brands. But at the same time these are only numerical ratings. I doesn't tell what sort of problems are being experienced. Also that the spread between the makes are not a vast as the rankings suggest.

For instance: the difference between top rated Buick and 14th rated Hyundai is about an additional 40 problems spread across every 100 vehicles. Not that bad when you think about it.

ffpowerLN

iTrader: (1)

This is the 3-year reliability survey so I am not surprised that Lexus falls out of the top spot. For MY2006 Lexus introduced the 3GS and 2IS and we all know how those two models fair in their first year, especially the GS.

Both Buck and Jaguar were selling antiques back then so the reliability for those car should be pretty good.

nn432100

wow cant believe this is front page news on msnb.com. slow news day I guess.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Agree...and many of us have all been predicting this slip since last year's report came out mainly because 06 saw the new GS and IS which had a few quibbles.

Additionally, not to slight Buick and Jaguar's victory because it's a great achievement, but three years ago Buick had a relatively old and simple lineup, as did Jaguar. Lexus, with 8 different models, obviously has more to contend with and 126 ppv is still a great figure.

Jaguar (XJ, XK, S Type) and Buick (Lucerne, Rainer, Rendenzvous, LaCrosse), with 3 or 4 models each, have a lot less to worry about especially when their models were quite long in the tooth. Lexus had a year with lots of brand new high volume product.

All in all I think this is a solid showing for everyone.

Technique

I'm not surprised given the # of rattles and recalls my IS350 has experienced in 2 years of ownership. I still love my Lexus, but my 2005 Jaguar S-Type 4.2 was solid as a rock...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/..._dependability

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

How does this work?

Lexus 126
Toyota 129
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Industry Average 170
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Scion 222


Scions are perhaps some of the most simple, low tech cars on the market. They all use older, proven Toyota hardware and parts. How is there a 93 points between Toyota and Scion?

tex2670

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...ty-survey.html

This is currenlty being discussed in Car Chat. Consumer Reports had noted that the '06 GS AWD had reliability problems--is that enought to drag the company's score down a nothch? I would think so.

But--where did Jag come from? That's some improvement. I guess their tires and wipers were so bad that that it skewed their scores down in the past??!! LOL

balutsc300

iTrader: (1)

It is probably because of the majority of people that buy scions which are younger people. Used and abused