The Best Car Brand in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 14, 10:45AM EST

Quick Read

A recent analysis reveals that Lexus was the most dependable car brand in America.
The study focused on problems per 100,000 vehicles in nine main categories.

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The annual J.D. Power U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study is one of the most carefully followed automobile research studies. The company recently released its 2025 edition. The ratings are based on “problems per 100 vehicles (PP100).” Lexus, a division of Toyota, was the brand with the best ranking. The Toyota brand ranked fourth, behind Buick and Mazda. The ranking included 30 car brands.

The data came from cars that were three years old. The study separated problems into nine major categories: climate, driving assistance features, driving experience, vehicle exterior, the car’s “features/controls/displays,” infotainment systems, vehicle interior, quality of powertrain, and seats.

Brand scores in general were hurt by relatively new vehicle features that manufacturers have added recently. These included software defects in systems like Wi-Fi and “personal device integration,” which includes smartphone use. That was not the only negative factor. Jason Norton, director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power said, “Supply chain issues, record-high vehicle prices, and personnel disruption in the wake of the pandemic were problematic.”

Lexus scored 140 PP100. The brand launched in the United States in 1989. It has rapidly expanded to have models in the sedan, SUV, crossover, hybrid, and electric vehicle (EV) categories. It usually sells about the same number of vehicles per year in the United States as Mercedes and BMW. Each delivers about 300,000 units.

To understand how well Lexus did in the J.D Power survey, note that the average PP100 among all brands included was 202. BMW had a score of 189. Mercedes had a score of 243.

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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.