People buy luxury vehicles for a variety of reasons, including power, technology and style. But some luxury brands also provide something much more important: Dependability.
A new study conducted by research firm J.D. Power found that Lexus and Porsche are the auto brands that show the fewest amount of owner-reported problems after three years of ownership. According to the study, the two brands tied for the fewest amount of owner-reported issues for 2014 models with 110 issues per 100 vehicles. Toyota’s 123 reported issues put it just behind its luxury brand in third, while Fiat was deemed the least-reliable manufacturer with with 298 reported problems.
“Buyers are increasingly avoiding models with poor reputations for dependability, so manufacturers can’t afford to let their quality slip,” Dave Sargent, vice president of global automotive at J.D. Power, said in the release. “While many expensive and niche vehicles do have excellent quality, the fact is that most consumers are shopping in the high-volume mainstream segments. The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get a very dependable vehicle.”
The study examined problems that owners of 3-year-old vehicles reported within the last 12 months. The study grouped vehicle problems into eight categories: Exterior, engine/transmission, entertainment, interior, driving experience, features/controls/displays, air conditioning and seats.
The most-common issues among model year 2014 vehicles pertained to the entertainment category, which accounted for 22 percent of all reported problems, according to the study. This category had the most problems in last year’s study too.
For the third-consecutive year, the most-reported issue across all categories was with Bluetooth pairing and connectivity, and voice recognition systems, according to the study. Battery failures also accounted for a high number of reported issues, rising 44 percent from the 2016 study.
Thumbnail photo via Lexus
