The Best-Built Car in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 17, 10:30AM EST

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The Best-Built Car in America — © Traimak_Ivan / iStock via Getty Images

Once a year, J.D. Power releases its U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study. The new edition for 2023 looks at how cars sold in 2020 are performing in terms of quality. The yardstick is problems per 100 vehicles. The best-performing brand was Lexus, which makes some of the most expensive vehicles sold in America. It is the luxury division of Japan’s Toyota. (Click here for the worst-built car in America.)
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The survey examined 184 potential problems across nine categories: “climate; driving assistance; driving experience; exterior; features/controls/displays; infotainment; interior; powertrain; and seats.” As has been the case in the past, drivers do not like complex electronics, which tends to bring down scores.
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J.D. Power researchers pointed out one problem that is not in Lexus’s favor. Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power, commented, “It is typical in the automotive industry to roll out concepts and features by putting them in premium vehicles first.” Because of its complex features, a Lexus can cost over $80,000.
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J.D. Power ranked 31 brands based on problems per 100 vehicles. The industry average was 186. Lexus had 133 problems per 100 vehicles.

Toyota launched Lexus in 1989. At first, it did not do well against Mercedes, BMW, Lincoln and Cadillac. Now it is the best-selling luxury brand in America, with 254,798 vehicles sold last year.
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A Lexus can cost over $100,000. The LX SUV with a full set of features has a price tag of $130,000. Most of its models have a base price of over $60,000.

Lexus’s quality ranking is another reason it bests its German and U.S. rivals. Quality counts.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.