Genesis, Buick give owners fewest headaches, latest JD Power study finds

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Another year, another JD Power Dependability Study. The firm pored over 36,000 responses from the original owners of 2017 model year vehicles, in order to understand how vehicles from various brands stack up after three years on the road.

For newcomer Genesis, it couldn't have done better in its first year in the survey. Hyundai Motor's luxury division is the top-rated luxury brand for the 2020 study, and also beat out every other brand measured. JD Power measures what it calls "PP100," which stands for problems per 100 vehicles over that three-year window.

The lower the score, the better. Genesis walked away with a score of 89 PP100, far lower than the industry average of 134 PP100.

For mass-market brands, General Motors' Buick division was the winner with a score of 103 PP100, also well below the industry average. On the full scale counting both luxury and mass-market brands, Genesis was first, Lexus was second (100 PP100) and Buick third. Porsche (104 PP100) ranked fourth and Toyota squeezed into the top 5 with 113 PP100.

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It's not all about winners, however. There are certainly losers in rankings like this. All the way at the bottom sits Land Rover with 220 PP100, well below the average score. Chrysler flirted with last place, too, with 214 PP100. There are, however, some notable improvements compared to the 2019 study.

Cadillac is a big one, with a final score of 131 PP100, down from 166 PP100 last year. Mazda, Lincoln, Ford and Volkswagen also saw significant improvements in this year's study.

Diving into the details, JD Power also scores individual models, and this year, the Lexus ES is the most dependable vehicle with just 52 PP100 -- the lowest score JD Power has ever recorded. There's even some history this year as the Nissan Leaf earned the top honor for the compact car segment. It's the first time an electric car has scored the award.

But wait, I know what you're asking: Where's Tesla? JD Power requires the automaker's permission to contact owners, and Tesla didn't give it the green light in all states where data collection takes place. Therefore, the firm would end up reporting numbers that do not reflect a true sample of Tesla vehicles.