The most reliable and least reliable car brands according to the 2023 J.D. Power survey
Three years old
J.D. Powers has been a household name in reliability testing in the automotive world for over thirty years. The J.D. Power reliability study relies on the experiences of users of popular cars that are up to three years old. The study examines the number of problems consumers have reported over the past 12 months and uses this to determine the overall reliability of these cars. This is expressed as the number of defects per 100 cars: problems per 100 vehicles. Ranking will be determined based on these results.
Lowest score wins
Based on this information, the research firm determined a final score for each car. Here the rule is: the lower the score, the more reliable the car is. This year, J.D. Power asked 30,000 U.S. car owners about any defects their car has shown in recent years.
2023
In this edition, the average score for all cars was 186. As is often the case, Lexus tops the JD Power survey, with a score of 133 this year. Genesis (Hyundai’s luxury brand) and Kia also appear to be extremely reliable. In fourth and fifth place we find two American brands: Chevrolet and Buick, both of which belong to the General Motors group. Then we encounter three Asians again: Mitsubishi, Toyota and Hyundai.
Europeans
The bottom of the list consists largely of Europeans. German brands, such as Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen, rank surprisingly low this year. At the very bottom of the list dangle Audi, Lincoln and Land Rover. The study does not take into account the severity of the ailment. In short: a completely ruined engine counts just as much as an infotainment system with some quirks. J.D. Power itself indicates that as many as six of the 10 most common problems are related to infotainment. Chances are that’s why many European brands – which often use complicated infotainment systems – rank so low. Below you can see the entire list. You can read what are currently the most reliable cars according to the Dutch Consumer Association here.
Also read: These are the most reliable cars according to the Consumers’ Association