2008 Lexus Overall Dependability Ratings

[Randy&Bonnie]

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[BillyShaft]

You sound shocked, Randy. Really?

Perhaps being here with your finger on the pulse of every unhappy Lexus owner with a problem (both real AND imagined) is damaging your perspective and your calm?

I equate that to working at the customer complaint desk at Southwest Airlines...all you see all day are complaints and unhappy people. The reality is that Southwest does it better than anyone else and has fewer complaints, but working at the complaint desk you get pounded with how horrible the company is.

Did I read your post wrong?

[LEXUS IS250 AWD]

Actually I heard that on my local news a few months back. Not the JD Power & Associates rating but I think it was the top 20 most dependable cars & Lexus/Lincoln were tied for the #1 spot. Me being a pre-owned Lexus owner, I can't really comment on the reliability too much because i've already had a few things gone wrong in the 3 months i've owned the car now.

[BillyShaft]

Now Lincoln tied with Lexus would surprise me...if that is true, good for Lincoln!

[smooth1]

I think Lincoln/Ford generally just get a bad rap. I know of alot still on the road with well over 150k miles clocked and still running strong. I owned a Mazda B2300 pick up ( all Ford with a Mazda emblem on it) for 9 years, and ran well over 200k miles on that truck, with only required maintenance and tires, ever! And that truck took a beating! It later became our shop truck, driven by atleast 15 different people, and the day we sold it, everything worked just the way it was supposed to. The only one thing I ever found annoying was the cheap plastic covers on the window cranks that kept popping off. But other than that, not a single problem.

[Sidney07]

And how many old Ford Taureses do you still see on the road? A plain and boring car, yes, but many are still out there going strong.

[SW03ES]

Ford has made some huge leaps and bounds in the quality department. Their cars nowadays are well made, have excellent materials, and their drivetrains are very refined. The new Lincoln MKS is a beautiful car...

[Randy&Bonnie]

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[BillyShaft]

Ok, I got you! I thought you were surprised that Lex was on top, when you were surprised that Lexus appears head-and-shoulders above the rest of them. Gotcha! Sorry, my bad.

It does seem weighted just a bit, doesn't it? JDP has a good reputation however and I think that they are legit. Lexus certainly has its' problems, but other manufacturers must just be an extra dose of suck, I guess :D

I suppose that is one of the reasons why I have owned 3 of them.

On BMW:

I really did not fully appreciate BMW until I owned a 95 M3. Everything on that car was designed and built to add cooling, efficiency and performance. My buddy and I changed out suspension and brakes on it, and we just geeked out for an afternoon on all the little details and touches that made that M3 such a screamer on the track. Very nice, and super impressive. Parts were not too expensive if you didn't get them from a dealer. Labor was easy on them with a good maintenance manual. I would own another BMW in a second.

BMW dealers on the other hand are a bit snooty and self-absorbed I think...not the Lexus experience.

[IS250_rookie]

JD Power is known to be a very biased and bs comparison test. I think they only test the vehicles for like the first 3 months of ownership. Who the hell cares about that?!

[Randy&Bonnie]

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[SW03ES]

JD Power doesn't test cars. They gather data by surveying owners of vehicles randomly with mail in surveys. JD Power rates and ranks everything out there a consumer can buy or use, credit cards, banks, cars, appliances, etc. For instance American Express constantly ranks at the top of customer service ratings for credit cards from JD Power.

Their results aren't biased, they're classic representative sampling and no conclusions are drawn by them, they are pure statistics.

Consumer Reports rates the same way but they are more biased because they only survey their members, members of consumer reports aren't a representative sample of an owner population at large.

Lexus has been tops in IQS (initial quality, thats the 3 months is250 was talking about but they survey way more than that), dealership satisfaction, overal satisfaction, and 5 year dependability with JD Power since they've been eligable for any of these measures.

You also have to look at other measures, I defy you to find any objective measure (consumer reports, etc, magazines and reviews are subjective) where Lexus is not at or near the top, and they haven't been almost every year they've been in business.

Randy's perception of BMW is a good example of how dependable JD Power ratings are. The ratings mirror what he has found with his friends and not his percieved public perception of BMW as a brand.

[IS250_rookie]

Well my point was that their tests are really pointless since you can't tell what a car is going to be like from the first 3 months. Obviously not a lot of stuff is going to break. And I don't doubt that Lexus is very dependable. We've had a lot of them and nothing ever broke.

[BillyShaft]

um...own something other than Lexus and you will find out what bad initial quality is like.

I have friends who have purchased cars where the body panels don't line up right, where the window falls out of the track the first time it was rolled down and where just closing the door made the marker light fall off the door. Pathetic.

[SW03ES]

Well my point was that their tests are really pointless since you can't tell what a car is going to be like from the first 3 months. Obviously not a lot of stuff is going to break. And I don't doubt that Lexus is very dependable. We've had a lot of them and nothing ever broke.

You should do more research into JD Power before spreading incorrect information.

I'll say it again, JD Power does not test anything, they survey owners at random.

Initial quality is one, one, of the many surveys they do. They also survey 5 year dependability, overall dependability, dealer satisfaction, and several other things pertaining to cars as well. Initial quality is a question of how satisfied are you with your car when new, its not a reliability measure. Don't like the cupholders? Thats an issue that counts against a car.

Randy posted the results of the overall dependability survey , this is a measure of a brand's long term dependability OVERALL as reported by surveying a random sample of vehicle owners. Not a measure within 3 months, not a test.

Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean its pointless or useless. JD Power is a very good, nonbiased source of statistical information about consumer's experiences with products they own or use.

[BillyShaft]

I have never seen anything anywhere that questioned the validity of JD Powers surveys. They are like the Gallup of survey companies.

[SW03ES]

Absolutely, very well respected.

[mr_raider]

The only serious flaw with JD power is it relies on self reports, volunteer surveys and memory, and as such is prone to several biases.

CR surveys subscribers, which has it's own bias issues. No single source should be taken as being the final truth.

[SW03ES]

I agree with you about CR, their subscribers are not a representative sample of an owner population.

However, mail in surveys have shown throughout the decades and decades that they've been used to be valid sources of statistical data provided that the sample is selected properly.

No measure such as these can be perfect.

[smooth1]

Actually, (this is just my opinion) I think CR has lost alot of value in my eyes. Take a look at the review for the H2 Hummer. Why do they not publish the mpg's ? All I ever see are n/a. You mean to tell me that in all 3 reviews, and comparisons and all that data, nobody can figure out the average mpg's? Or is GM paying CR enouph money to keep that off the publications? And if you agree with me that GM must have some arrangement with CR for that, then where do those agreements stop? How many car companies? And what info is for sale?

[Marklouis]

Lexus really has set the Bar high in each perspective of the build quality of thier vehicles - i like to think of Lexus as the inspiration for other car manufacturers to reach that Bar - there is no thelling how many Lexus models have been bought over the years and reverse-engineered as a learning tool.

im a stickler for Precision anyways, and thats what you get with Lexus.

Drive on!

[SW03ES]

Did they actually review the Hummer? Sometimes if they haven not actually reviewed the cars they don't have any stats.

[smooth1]

they must have at one point, in 08 they came out with a suppliment report about the best and worst gas mileage, in that publication, they have the H2 as getting 11 mpg's. The worst of all gas mileage, yet in all their regular publications, it's allways listed as N/A. I just don't get that.

Here's a link to the suppliment report:CR gas mileage report

Now go look at the regular publications and you'll see. it's allways N/A. Even though they show 3-4 years of consumer feedback on all the catagories.

[BillyShaft]

Maybe the software just won't handle a number that low...like Y2K in reverse. :D

[SW03ES]

That does sound weird...