GS69

Buick Ties Lexus for #1 in Car Reliability
Survey finds Detroit brands making headway against Japanese competitors.
August 9 2007: 3:56 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For the first time in 12 years, Toyota's Lexus luxury brand has to share its top rank in J.D. Power and Associates' annual Vehicle Dependability Study.

And it has to share it with an American car.

General Motors' Buick brand tied Lexus in the study, which measures the number of problems owners experience with their cars after three years of ownership.

Following Lexus and Buick in the rankings were GM's Cadillac luxury brand, Ford's Mercury brand and Honda's Honda brand.

Toyota's mass-market Toyota brand ranked sixth.

"Consumers don't neccessarily need to pay premium prices to obtain high quality and dependability," said Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis for J.D. Power and Associates.

"With three non-premium nameplates - Buick, Honda and Mercury - ranking within the top five," he said, "and particularly with Buick tying with Lexus for the top rank, consumers seeking a vehicle with strong dependability have good choices at various price levels."

J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study is based on responses from more than 53,000 original owners of 2004 model year vehicles.

Owners of the top-ranked Lexus and Buick vehicles experienced 145 problems per 100 vehicles. Owners of second-ranked Cadillac vehicles experienced 162 problems per 100 vehicles.

The lowest-ranking brand was Land Rover, Ford's European luxury SUV brand. Land Rover owners experienced 398 problems per 100 vehicles, according to the survey.

J.D. Power and Associates also ranked specific vehicles within their respective categories. The top-ranked sub-compact car, for example, was the Scion xA from Toyota's youth-oriented Scion brand.

The top-ranked compact car was the Honda Civic and the top-ranked "Sporty car" was the Mazda Miata.

The Chevrolet SSR, a low-slung convertible pickup, and the Ford Mustang tied as the most depenible midsize sporty cars, and the Ford Crown Victoria ranked as the most dependable large car.

Lexus vehicles topped five categories, more than any other brand. Lexus had the top-ranked premium SUV, large premium SUV, premium sporty car, large premium car and midsize premium car. Toyota's Toyota brand topped four categories.

JessePS

Now that is something you don't see every day. Oh well.

CdeFabio

Sounds like it is time for Lexus to raise the bar again!

kit cat

iTrader: (6)

I'm not surprised. The interior quality will not stand a chance against a Lexus but GM cars do run forever if you have the right one and taken care of. But the article says "in the ownership of 3 years"...I've seen/heard plenty of GM cars breaking down before then. It seems like either they run forever or break down everyday from what I hear. Then again I have no evidence to back this up, just my 2 cents.

"Consumers don't neccessarily need to pay premium prices to obtain high quality and dependability," said Neal Oddes
^that, I dunno.

MadMax96

Dependable or not, they're still Buicks... blech.

"Buick - when you want the world to know you're an old man"

mmarshall

No. Again, that's an unjustified stereotype. We've been through this before. You don't have to be Grandpa to appreciate a smooth ride and a low noise level. I myself had two Buicks.....in my TEENS.

In fact, if you think about it, that is what Lexus itself originally started as in 1990....a BETTER Buick (or maybe a better Cadillac) .

However, I don't trust J.D. Power as much as Consumer Reports....I'm going to wait and see what CR has to say about it in the next December and April Auto-Buying issues.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

I certainly do not mean to slight Buick because this is a great achievement for the brand, and GM as a whole. That said, I do not really find this to be as significant as Lexus scoring for two reasons:

1) The only new vehicle that Buick has had is the Lucerne- Enclave would not be counted here. Also, the Lucerne rides on older, proven architecture and is more or less a reskin of the Impala platform. GM had plenty of time to work out the quibbles on this car before they put a new interior and exterior, and a Buick badge.

2) These cars do not really posses any more technology than a Corolla, which makes them very simple. The more advanced technology is, the more difficult it is to make it reliable.

Considering that Lexus has cranked out many new models and continues to raise the bar in technology and innovation, I really find it hard to take Buick's standing seriously. Or Mercury for that matter, for many of the same reasons.

mmarshall

Mercurys, though, in most cases, are little different from their Ford cousins.....the two are essentially corporate twins. Not so with Buick...or at least not as much. The Lucerne has some similiarities with the Cadillac DTS and the front drive Impala, but shows more differences between them than typical Fords and Mercurys do. Same with the LaCrosse. It has the same platform as the Pontiac Grand Prix, but in actuality is a much different car.

Ford could probably drop the Mercury division (and keep Lincoln) without a lot of disruption, but that would not be the case with GM and Buick...the Buick division is too important at GM.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

The differences are in the body work, and interior trim levels for the most part. Mechanically, they are as identical as possible.

GS69

The results are as follows (problems per 100 vehicles)
Buick: 145
Lexus: 145
Cadillac: 162
Mercury: 168
Honda: 169
Toyota: 178
BMW: 182
Lincoln: 182
Subaru: 192
Oldsmobile: 196
Jaguar: 197
Acura: 207
Mercedes-Benz: 212
Infiniti: 215
Industry Average 216
Jeep: 219
Pontiac: 220
Scion: 220
Ford: 221
GMC: 222
Chevrolet: 226
Hyundai: 228
Mitsubishi: 228
Volvo: 230
Audi: 234
Dodge: 236
Hummer: 242
Mini: 247
Chrysler: 249
Porsche: 252
Nissan: 274
Saturn: 274
Kia: 288
Mazda: 289
Volkswagen: 298
Saab: 319
Isuzu: 322
Suzuki: 324
Land Rover: 398

And below are the top three vehicles per segment:
Sub-Compact Car
Highest Ranked: Scion xA
Hyundai Accent
Chevrolet Aveo

Compact Car
Highest Ranked: Honda Civic
Toyota Prius
Toyota Corolla

Compact Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Mazda Miata
Mitsubishi Lancer/Lancer Sportback
Toyota Celica

Midsize Sporty Car
Highest Ranked:Chevrolet SSR (tie), Ford Mustang (tie)
Toyota Solara

Midsize Car
Highest Ranked: Buick Century
Buick Regal
Mercury Sable

Large Car
Highest Ranked: Ford Crown Victoria
Mercury Grand Marquis
Buick Park Avenue

Compact Premium Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Honda S2000
BMW Z4
Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class

Entry Premium Car
Highest Ranked: Infiniti I35
Cadillac CTS
Lexus IS 300/IS 300 SportCross

Midsize Premium Car
Highest Ranked: Lexus GS 300/GS 430
Acura RL
Lexus ES 330

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

Premium Sporty Car
Highest Ranked: Lexus SC 430
Ford Thunderbird
Chevrolet Corvette

Compact MAV
Highest Ranked: Toyota RAV4
Honda CR-V
Honda Element

Midsize MAV
Highest Ranked: Oldsmobile Bravada
Buick Rainier
Toyota 4Runner

Large MAV
Highest Ranked: Toyota Sequoia
GMC Yukon
Chevrolet Suburban

Large Pickup
Highest Ranked: Toyota Tundra
Ford F-150 Heritage/F-150 Lightning
Ford F-150 LD

Midsize Pickup
Highest Ranked: Toyota Tacoma
Ford Ranger
Mazda B-Series

Van
Highest Ranked: Oldsmobile Silhouette
Mercury Monterey
Honda Odyssey

Midsize Premium MAV
Highest Ranked: Lexus GX 470
Lexus RX 300
Infiniti FX-Series

Large Premium MAV
Highest Ranked: Lexus LX 470
Toyota Land Cruiser
Cadillac Escalade EXT

Gojirra99

original press release(pdf) : http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/new...df/2007130.pdf
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LexFather

How does Honda always do better than Acura in these surveys? Infiniti is one better than average, that is not good and they got beat by BMW and Benz.

Kudos to the Americans, glad they are doing so well. It proves they can build dependable cars!!

So Lexus won pretty much every category they were eligible in?

GS300Rich

glad I dont own a land rover, ouch Buicks have never appealed to me, Im sure they are very sound and ride nice but I just dont like the way they look.

GStateOM

I think you also have to keep in mind how Buick owners treat their cars. I think it would be rare to find a new Buick that has been driven hard as it is a car for older people. Younger people are buying Buick these days too, but typically moreso on the used car market.

I have had many american products. When bought new, the first 4 years of ownership have been trouble free for me and most people that I know that have bought American. After that, it just snowballs.

Big Andy

How do they weigh these surveys? From the reading of the survey you would say that Land Rover owners experience about 4 problems in 3 years while Buick/Lexus experience 1.5. But what if the four problems a Land Rover owner experiences are minor - say a squeaky seat, a faulty radio, interior rattles - while the Buick owner has a single engine failure? The survey would still show Buick as the most reliable but I think I know which one I 'd prefer. Does the survey reflect this?