GM, Toyota stand out in J.D. Power dependability rankings

Here are the highest ranking vehicles in each of the passenger car segments:

Here are the highest ranking light-truck models by segment:

General Motors and Toyota posted solid marks in the dependability of 3-year-old vehicles, but consumer frustrations with wireless connections, navigation and voice-recognition software persist across the automotive industry, according to a J.D. Power and Associates study released in February.

Lexus, Porsche, Buick and Toyota captured the top four spots in the annual vehicle dependability study, which measures owners’ complaints per hundred vehicles and was released one day after a similar survey by Consumer Reports magazine. These vehicles all had fewer than 114 problems per hundred, with Lexus (95) and Porsche (97) setting the pace.

The study also recognizes standout vehicles in nine car and 10 light-truck segments. From that perspective, GM had eight segment-leading models, while Toyota and its Lexus luxury brand had six.

But an overriding theme of the study, again, was that consumer frustration with the flood of technology into their vehicles is not easing. The industry average of problems per 100 vehicles rose to 152 from 147 last year, and many of the issues were related to controls, entertainment choices and voice-recognition glitches in touch screens or hands-free smartphone use.

“The increase in technology-related problems has two sources,” said Renee Stephens, J.D. Power vice president of U.S. automotive. “Usability problems that customers reported during their first 90 days of ownership are still bothering them three years later, in ever-higher numbers.”

Stephens said frequent complaints centered on Bluetooth, the wireless connection between smartphones and vehicles, and voice-recognition software that is meant to translate voice commands into text or directions for navigation.

In the last year, however, GM, Hyundai and others have begun to offer to make their connectivity technology compatible with either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. These systems effectively replicate the non-video apps from one’s phone on the vehicle’s center-mounted screen.

Because this year’s survey focused on 3-year-old cars and trucks, there’s no way to measure whether that trend is solving the issues over which many drivers are confused.

“The technologies people were most satisfied with were collision-avoidance features such as lane-departure alerts or blind-spot monitoring,” Stephens said.

J.D. Power researchers gathered responses from 33,560 drivers of 2013 model-year vehicles interviewed between October and December 2015.

Domestic brands fared better in this study than in the Consumer Reports rankings released in February. The J.D. Power data showed five domestic brands in the top 10 - Buick (3rd), GMC (5th), Chevrolet (6th), Ram (9th) and Lincoln (10th). Cadillac, which ranked fourth last year, slipped to 15th, at 145 problems per 100, slightly better than the industry average.

Only Buick (7th) ranked in the top 10 brands in the Consumer Reports assessment.