The American firm JD Power has just published one of its many reliability surveys. This concerns the most reliable brands after three years of use. The study analyzes the number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) for models of the 2020 model year.
JD Power drew several interesting points from this survey:
As usual, Japanese and Korean brands dominate the rankings with 7 entries in the top 10. GM manages to place two brands (Buick and Chevrolet) and we also find MINI. Downstairs, as usual one might say, we discover Land Rover. It should be noted that Tesla is taken into account for the first time this year, but its result should be taken with a grain of salt because the brand does not provide access to its data in all American states. For detailed rankings, see the chart below.
With an industry average of 186 PP100s, JD Power saw an improvement of 6 PP100s over last year. The brands that have seen the greatest improvements over the past 12 months according to the firm are RAM (-77 PP100), Volvo (-41 PP100) and Nissan (-35 PP100).
With 133 PP100, Lexus is in the lead among luxury vehicles, while Kia, with 152 PP100, ranks first among generalist brands. But the gap between general brands and luxury brands has been growing steadily since 2016. This is obviously due to the introduction of new technologies (therefore little or not proven) in more upscale vehicles.
As for several years, it is the infotainment systems that attract the most complaints from users. Whether it’s voice recognition, connectivity, the hard-to-use touchscreen or outdated navigation, they alone account for 49.9 PP100.
Photo: Lexus
A final important point for the future: it appears that users are very sensitive to remote updates and have a better appreciation of their vehicle after a software change.
JD Power has been carrying out its 3-year Reliability Study (or Vehicle Dependability Study, VDS) for 34 years now. This year, the firm surveyed more than 30,000 model year 2020 model owners between August and November 2022.
See also: the least reliable 2023 models according to Consumer Reports