Lexus Takes Over Top Spot in Initial Quality Study

Lexus has regained its top spot from Porsche in this year’s Initial Quality Study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, with Cadillac, Hyundai and Honda rounding out the top five.

Two very important studies that come from J.D. Power every year include one dealing with the first three years of ownership, which offers a glimpse at how well a car will hold up over that time period, and another being the Initial Quality Study, which asks questions about the first three months of ownership.

There’s always vigorous debate — especially in our comments — about the IQS study and its real value to car shoppers. We’ll just weigh in with the fact that the more information with which you can arm yourself, the better. Plus, many newer models won’t be listed on the three-year dependability study.  

For the full list, click below. For J.D. Power's full report, go here.

Comments

i thought that perhaps JD power could be worth something, but then i read further into the ratings.

the Pontiac G5 outscored the VW Rabbit and tied the Jetta in the compact category. both are obviously superior vehicles.

the Pontiac G6 came in 2nd for the midsize sedan category.

the Cadillac DTS got third for the full-size luxury category.

the Mitsubishi Eclipse got third in the midsize Sporty car category.

the Chrysler PT CRUISER tied the honda CR-V for FIRST in the "multi activity vehicle"(stupid name) category.

the Chevrolet Trailblazer is ranked #1 in the midsize MAV category.

also, some of the "problems" that are outlined as the most prevalent in the winners were actually very significant. here are some of them,

Speedometer/Tachometer/Odometer is difficult to use or in a poor location
Windows fog up a lot or don’t clear as desired,
Materials that scuff or soil easily,
Vehicle pulls noticeably,
Noisy brakes,
Fuel cap is hard to open or close,
Abnormal transmission noises,
Excessive brake dust,
Instrument panel/dashboard has a squeak or rattle
Engine cranks too long before starting
Paint chip or scratch at delivery
Manual transmission clutch chatter
Seat belt latch/release controls are difficult to understand or use
Speakers vibrate/rattle
Excessive fuel consumption
Abnormal noises under vehicle
Folding seat is broken or not working

These are all significant problems, and i can only imagine what the least reliable vehcile's problems are (spontaneous combustion, coming alive and eating your dog).

I'm not at all surprised that GM didn't have 1 single car in the 10 Most Problem-Free Cars category. This is what you get when you focus on SUV's and cars made for rental fleets. Kudos to Toyota for landing so many of their vehicles on the list as competition is good. I personally don't think the JD Power's survey is the end all be all as in my experience Subaru and Honda ultimately make the best cars.

Hey Dave Wuss, i hate to inform you but Cadillac (number 3rd spot) is a GM...

Peppy,
Reading comprehension is obviously not a strength of yours. I wrote "GM didn't have 1 single car in the 10 Most Problem-Free Cars category". The list is for SPECIFIC models.

Praise Toyota for good performance on one hand yet discredit the relevancy of the survey on the other.

Forget these surveys and metrics and other measures of quality...let's just go by Dave Wuss' experience.

H,
I see that reading comprehension is also not a strength or yours. The simple fact that I use the survey to support my point means that it's relevant. Clearly you are a product of public schooling.

The declaration that American cars are narrowing the gap is somewhat misleading: While it is true, as a whole, they are making gains -- the real numbers that matter to consumers is the individual cars in certain a particular class. For example, the top three classes of cars are: Truck, Mid-sized sedan, and SUV. Toyota dominates in these classes. Just because Americans can do cars that few people drive better -- isn't exactly the best accomplishment.

I tell all my friends to buy foreign still. And to use the power of competition to get a good price (ignore clever marketing). This is the best process to use when you are ready for a car:

http://excarsalesman.typepad.com/

Jaxon and Dave:

You two are beyond ignorant. Having class leaders is more or less meaningless if a brand as a whole isn't ranked high. Honda only had two class leaders so by your logic Honda's have poor initial quality. Toyota has more class leaders than anyone else but is not ranked at the top as a brand and that's what matters. Toyota is ranked slighly better than Chevy and Chevy is GM's biggest brand by far. Point is, the two brands are more or less equal in terms of brand wide quality regardless of how many class leaders Toyota offers. Futhermore, Infinitu dropped significantly, Hyundai passed several Japenese brands and Cadillac topped all import luxury brands except Lexus. To look at this data and come away with the conclusion that imports have far superior quality is ridiculous.

JM and Original sheth both hinted at problems I have with the study. First, a lot of problems seem to stem from confusion over how things operate. Granted, the automakers need to hear about that. But down the road, once you become accustomed to it or it's fully explained, it won't really matter, yet the study doesn't really break those kinds of problems out.

A second issue is that past the top three in each category, there's really no way to tell how a car you might be considering did since they don't issue a ranking of all cars. So Toyota had more tops in class than anyone. Yet overall Hyundai did better, but they only have 1 that made the top three even for its class. So we can probably infer that most Hyundais must have been at least pretty close to the top three and that there had to be at least a few Toyotas that were well away from the top three. Yet there's no way to know which one or ones drug down Toyota's overall score. Or how far those Hyundais were from the top position.

sheth,
Thanks for making me laugh so hard as I almost cracked a rib! Yeah, GM is in the same class as Toyota. I guess that's why Toyota is #1 and Government Motors got delisted from the NYSE (if you even know what that is). Keep drinking the Kool Aid.

GO HYUNDAI!

Dave:

GM is #1 in the US and VW may pass Toyota worldwide within the next couple of years- if not this year. GM also sells more than Toyota in Europe and China. In what market is being #2 out of a dozen major players a bad thing? Selling 8M vehicles is pretty significant in my book even if its not in yours.

Whats the NYSE?

I don't like the knob placement of my radio and my gas cap is hard to open. I guess my car has poor initial quality.