The 2018 Lexus LC 500
Mack Hogan | CNBC
According to a new study by JD Power, the three most reliable car brands in the US are now Lexus, Porsche and Kia. The three least reliable are Jaguar, Alfa Romeo and Land Rover.
Tesla, which was first profiled in this year’s vehicle reliability survey, came in 30th out of 33 car manufacturers. It landed one place behind Chrysler and one ahead of Jaguar.
JD Power studies serve as an industry benchmark, and the results can boost sales and impact insurance premiums for owners. The U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study 2021 analyzed responses from 33,251 verified owners of 2018 model year vehicles sold in the U.S. The study assessed approximately 150 different models, including cars, trucks and SUVs.
Tesla’s ranking in this year’s 32-year-old annual study is considered unofficial, said Dave Sargent, JD Power’s vice president of automotive quality. That’s because Elon Musk’s electric car company doesn’t allow JD Power to investigate its owners in 15 states that require it.
One of the excluded states is California, home of Tesla and a huge market for the company. However, the JD Power study included 756 Tesla respondents from 35 different states, including large markets with relatively warm weather, such as Florida and Texas.
Although Tesla unofficially scored low on the reliability survey, it unofficially topped JD Power’s 2020 APEAL survey, which rates car brands based on owners’ emotional attachment and the level of excitement with their new vehicles.
Who is there, who is there
The Reliability Survey asks drivers how many and what kind of problems their cars, trucks or SUVs have experienced in the last year and assigns a score based on the reported problems per 100 vehicles. The lower the score, the more reliable the automaker.
The largest number of issues reported by vehicle owners of all makes and models were related to audio, communication, entertainment and navigation systems.
“As smartphone apps increasingly offer owners an alternative, some will give up the vehicle’s built-in systems that caused that initial frustration. This is problematic for car manufacturers as much of the vehicle’s value is trapped in these systems and they do that. don’t want to transfer this company to third parties, ”Sargent said.
The Porsche 911 was the highest ranked model in the 2021 study.
Lexus, owned by Toyota, topped the list of all makes, with a score of 81 issues per 100 vehicles.
Kia vehicles have grown remarkably from the least reliable car makes in the US to the most reliable in just a decade, averaging 97 problems per 100 vehicles. Toyota almost topped the list with 98 problems per 100 vehicles.
Volkswagen, which introduced two new models in 2018, fell in the reliability rankings. Sargent noted, “The results can be affected by whether a manufacturer has just launched some new products. They are usually most problematic in their first year.”
Owners of 3-year-old Teslas reported 176 problems per 100 vehicles, compared to the US industry average of 121 problems per 100 vehicles. Tesla owners reported more problems with their exterior and interior than with other systems such as propulsion, battery or infotainment and navigation. However, some have complained of problems with Tesla’s in-car speech recognition.
Overall, vehicle reliability improved by about 10% year over year, JD Power found. Some of this was due to the lower use and abuse of vehicles amid a Covid pandemic that has cut commuting and travel in the United States in 2020.
“We know that the more people who use a vehicle, the more problems they will have,” Sargent said. Last year, consumers had driven an average of about 32,000 miles over the three years they owned a new car. This year they had driven 29,000 miles – a 10% reduction over three years and an implied 30% reduction over the past year.
– CNBC’s Michael Wayland contributed to this report.