Who Builds the Best Cars?

By Bill McLauchlan

If you pay any attention at all to the tub-thumping ad claims made by car makers they’re invariably playing the one-upsmanship card in the endless game of “Our Car is Better Than Yours.”

Often it’s played with price. Other times it’s fuel economy, features, styling, technology, practicality or functionality … you name it.

These days it’s likely to be quality, as in the latest J.D. Power 2014 Vehicle Dependability Study. On that score, it would appear GM can claim “Our Car is Better” than any other automaker, with eight segment award recipients covering its Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands.

According the J.D. Power, the fewer problems owners experience with their vehicles, the greater the loyalty to the brand. The 2014 study tracks 2011 model-year vehicles in their third year of ownership.

In all, GM placed 13 models among the top three in their market segments. For Chevrolet, the Volt received this highest dependability award in the Compact Car segment in its launch year. The Camaro ranked highest in Mid-Size Sporty Segment for the second year in a row, after also receiving the award as a launch vehicle last year. The Tahoe, Silverado HD pickup and Avalanche also ranked second or third in their respective categories.
Cadillac earned segment awards for the Escalade in Large Premium SUV and the DTS in Large Premium Car (tied with the Lexus LS). Buick picked up the laurels in Large Car with its Lucerne while the LaCrosse ranked second in its Mid-Size category. GMC picked up awards for the Sierra in Large Light Duty and Large Heavy Duty pickup segments and the Yukon in Large CUV.

Lexus GS 350 Sport

That said, Lexus ranks highest in vehicle dependability among all nameplates for a third consecutive year. The gap between Lexus and all other brands is substantial, with Lexus averaging 68 PP100 (Problems experienced Per 100 vehicles) compared with second-ranked Mercedes-Benz at 104 PP100. Following in the overall rankings are Cadillac (107), Acura (109) and Buick (112) respectively.

GM’s Big Three rivals didn’t fare quite so well. While its Lincoln brand ranked well at 114 PP100 for a seventh overall position, Ford itself came in at 140 PP100. Chrysler and its other in-house brands all recorded scores of 155 or lower.

The overall dependability average for the industry was 133 PP100, a six percent increase in problems from 126 PP100 a year ago. This marks the first time since 1998 that the average number of problems has increased. Engine and transmission problems accounted for a big part of the 2014 increase.  Power noted the decline in quality is particularly acute for vehicles with 4-cylinder engines, where problem levels increased by nearly 10 PP100. These smaller engines, as well as large diesel engines, tend to be more problematic than 5- and 6-cylinder engines, for which owners report fewer problems on average.
But for individual brand bragging rights Honda claimed five awards: Fit (Sub-Compact Car), Element Sub-Compact CUV, CR-V (Compact CUV), Crosstour (Mid-Size CUV) and Ridgeline (Mid-Size Pickup).

Honda CR-V

Next up with a quartet of awards was Lexus for its ES (Compact premium Car), GS (Mid-Size Premium Car), LS (tied with Cadillac’s DTS in Large Premium Car) and RX (Mid-Size Premium CUV) models. Toyota led the Mid-Size Car segment with its Camry while the Sienna was rated best in the Minivan category. Solo awards went to Acura’s RDX (Compact Premium CUV), Scion xB (Compact MPV) and the MINI Cooper (Compact Sporty Car). The latter two are curious winners, in that the MINI ranked dead last in nameplate rankings with 185 PP100 while the Scion didn’t fare much better at 152 PP100. Likely due to limited competition from rival automakers in those segments.