• by Karl Greenberg , August 12, 2008

Watch for those J.D. Power trophies to appear on window posters at your local Lexus dealership. For the 14th year running, Toyota's luxury brand has topped the consultancy's yearly Vehicle Dependability Study, based on surveys of customers who have owned vehicles for three years after buying them new.

A companion to the firm's Initial Quality Study, which tracks vehicle problems after 90 days of ownership, the dependability study slices and dices responses from 52,000 original owners of 2005 model-year vehicles three years after driving off the lot.

Lexus won top honors for the ES 330 sedan, IS 300, GX 470 and LX 470 SUVs, LS 430 car, and SC 430 coupe. The sibling Toyota brand had five winners: Highlander, Prius, RAV4, Sequoia, and Tundra. Ford won for the Crown Victoria and Ranger; Honda won for the Element and S2000 coupe. After Lexus came Mercury, Cadillac, Toyota and Acura. Lexus won by far.

Models by Buick, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Mazda and Mercury each rank highest in one segment. General Motors' Saab brand was the most improved in the study, but J.D. Power put it below the industry average.

The firm said the biggest improvements were in mid-sized premium crossover vehicles and the compact car and mid-size car segments. Together, the three segments accounted for more than one-half of the overall industry improvement.

"The gains in dependability for compact and mid-size vehicles are good news for consumers who are downsizing their vehicles due to increasing fuel prices," said David Sargent, vice president of automotive research at the consultancy, in a statement. "Consumers who purchase these smaller vehicles benefit not only from immediate gains in fuel economy, but also from improvements in long-term dependability, compared with previous years."