Lexus Named Most Dependable Auto Brand in U.S. for 7th Year

New York, Feb. 14 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp.'s <7203> Lexus luxury brand ranked top in a dependability survey for the seventh consecutive year, major U.S. market research firm J.D. Power and Associates said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Toyota's Toyota brand fell to ninth in the 2018 vehicle dependability survey, from third in the previous year's report. Porsche of Germany's Volkswagen AG, which tied with Lexus last year, came second, followed by Buick of U.S. auto giant General Motors Co. The 31-brand rankings were determined based on the number of problems per 100 units reported by some 37,000 owners of 2015 model-year vehicles during the past 12 months. Owners of three-year-old Lexus vehicles experienced 99 problems per 100 units, according to the report. The 2018 average problem figure came to 142, against the previous year's 156, showing a decline for the first time in five years, J.D. Power said. Among other Japanese brands, Nissan Motor Co.'s <7201> Infiniti luxury brand jumped from 29th to fourth. Nissan's Nissan brand ranked 11th and Honda Motor Co.'s <7267> Honda 12th. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Chrysler turned out to be the least dependable brand, with 211 problems per 100 units. END