For 32 years now, customer intelligence company J.D. Power has been researching the issues of reliability of three-year-old cars. The newest ranking drops the last year’s leader to the eighth position while the previous second place winner claims the pedestal.
The first place went to Lexus for the ninth time in the past ten years. Porsche ranked second followed by KIA, which used to be far lower than that the year before. Toyota came forth, and Buick rounded the top five.
Genesis – the last year’s leader – plummeted to the eighth position. Volkswagen, Chrysler, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo and Land Rover also found themselves among outsiders.
This year also marks the first time J.D. Power included Tesla in the ranking – although unofficially. The automaker dissolved its PR department and severed communications, but the analytics expert still found and polled 756 Tesla owners about their experiences. In the end, the EV maker ranked 30th, just barely surpassing Jaguar.
The agency polls car owners for 177 points across eight categories. The year 2020 saw mean failure rates drop to a new all-time low, going down 10% year-over-year.