J.D. Power: Lexus, Kia Make the Most Dependable Cars

Lexus makes the most dependable luxury cars, and Kia builds the most dependable cars at mainstream prices.

That’s the conclusion of J.D. Power’s 2023 Vehicle Dependability Study. The study looks at the number of problems new car owners experience in the first three years of ownership.

Overall Quality Is Improving, But This Study Excludes Pandemic-Built Cars

Owners reported an average of 186 problems per 100 vehicles. Last year, the industry average was 192, suggesting that the quality of the average car has improved.

But the survey reflects the first three years of ownership, so this year’s data shows the quality of 2020 model year cars. We expect to see a dip once the cars manufactured in the difficult conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic are old enough to qualify for the study. J.D. Power’s Initial Quality Study, which looks at just the first 90 days of ownership, suggests that 2022 cars may be unusually problematic.

Luxury Cars Have More Problems

Luxury cars are loaded with more features than mainstream cars. Many of those features rely on new technologies. That’s a recipe for problems.

Mass-market brands, J.D. Power says, averaged 182 problems per 100 cars. Luxury cars averaged 205. That, J.D. Power says, is the widest gap the agency has seen since it started this study 34 years ago.

“It is typical in the automotive industry to roll out concepts and features by putting them in premium vehicles first,” explains Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking. That means new technologies go into luxury cars before they’re perfected and make their way into mainstream vehicles only after luxury buyers have found the problems and automakers have corrected them.

Infotainment Tech Is the Worst Part of New Cars

They find the problems through the touchscreen.

Infotainment systems caused almost twice as many owner frustrations as any other part. Six of the top 10 most common problems were infotainment-related. Owners were more likely to complain about buggy voice command systems than any other feature, with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto integration, Bluetooth connectivity, and difficult-to-use touchscreen menus also earning scorn.

Satisfaction scores improve, however, when automakers offer over-the-air software updates.

Rank by Manufacturer:

Kia earned its third-straight win among mainstream brands. Lexus took back the top spot after losing it to Genesis last year.

Tesla has a strained relationship with J.D. Power’s studies. Tesla historically denies J.D. Power access to some data, which has led analysts to publish unofficial scores for Tesla in the past. This year, J.D. Power says, “Tesla is included in the industry [dependability study] calculation this year for the first time, with a score of 242 PP100. However, because Tesla does not allow J.D. Power access to owner information in the states where that permission is required by law, Tesla vehicles remain ineligible for awards.”

Scores by Model

J.D. Power analysts eliminated several categories this year, including large car and premium sports car, as not enough models met their sales criteria.

2022 Results

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect 2023 study results. The results of the 2022 study are found below:

2022 Rank by Manufacturer:

The industry average was 192.

2022 Scores by model: