Honda slips below Jeep in US reliability study, Lexus & Genesis top charts

If you haven't been living under a rock for the past decade, this news won't surprise: Luxury brands Lexus and Genesis – both spinoffs of popular Asian manufacturers – have won the top spots in this year's J.D. Power dependability survey in the United States.

For mainstream brands, Kia gained the top gong, followed by Buick and Chevrolet rounding out the top five.

What might surprise, no matter where you've been living, is that Honda has slipped below Jeep in the well-known study of reliability among automotive brands.

Perhaps only anecdotally, Jeep is not often thought of as a maker of the most reliable products on the market – despite its historically well-earned and passionate customer base – while Honda is regularly spoken of in the same breath as Toyota when it comes to reliability.

Of course, it's equally true that with all brands, every complaint found online will be met by a story from that owner onto his fourth perfectly reliable car from Beloved Brand X. Likewise, any brand's product reliability can experience ups and downs over generations of leadership changes and cost-focused accounting.

What is the J.D. Power survey?

J.D. Power's survey ranks brands on their product's problems per 100 vehicles (PP100), with all the brands scoring well below the average of 192 PP100.

Lexus was given a score of 133 and Genesis 144, while Kia finished on 152 PP100.

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The study examines how 2020 model-year vehicles are currently performing in terms of quality, component replacement and appeal—including those vehicles with new technology—and helps automotive manufacturers design and build better vehicles to stand the test of time and promote higher resale value. A lower PP100 indicates higher performance.

This year's study was based on responses from 30,062 original owners of 2020 model year vehicles, looking at how the cars stand up after three years on the road – fielded between August and November 2022.

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Individual models such as the Toyota C-HR, Kia Sportage and Chevrolet Silverado won awards in their segments, while the overall award for the most dependable model was given jointly to the Toyota C-HR and Lexus RX – each with 111 PP100. Both models show improvement in eight of the nine problem categories from a year ago.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla was officially included in the survey 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.

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Among the most problematic car issues facing owners is the performance of infotainment systems. Six of the top 10 problem areas in the study are infotainment-related – including built-in voice recognition, Android Auto/Apple CarPlay connectivity, built-in bluetooth system connectivity, touchscreen/display screen difficult to use, not enough power plugs/USB ports and navigation system inaccurate or outdated.

The increase in problems in the technology area shows the importance that over-the-air updates can play in correcting issues with audio systems and keeping the information in them up to date, said J.D. Power.

“It is typical in the automotive industry to roll out concepts and features by putting them in premium vehicles first,” said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power.

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On the plus side, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of vehicles required fewer component replacements in the past 12 months (excluding wear items), including; key fob/key fob battery, brake rotors, headlight components/bulbs, and other exterior lights/bulbs, than in the 2022 study.

The lowest-ranked manufacturer in the survey was Land Rover with 273 PP100, finishing behind Lincoln (259), Audi (252), Ford (249) and Mercedes-Benz (240) in the bottom five places.

The top three brands with the greatest improvement in the number of problems were Ram (77 PP100 improvement), Volvo (41 PP100 improvement) and Nissan (35 PP100 improvement).

2023 J.D. Power Dependability Study

Top 10 brands

Bottom 10 brands