J.D. Power’s dependability results are watched closely by automakers and are often used in advertising.

It’s the 14th straight year Toyota Motor Corp.’s high-end brand has held the top position in the annual study, which measures problems experienced by the original owners of vehicles after three years. Lexus had 120 problems per 100 vehicles, down from 145 last year.

Ford and Honda won two awards each, and Buick, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Mazda, and Mercury one.

“That’s a pretty good track record,” said Dave Sargent, J.D. Power’s vice president of automotive research. “They benefited to some degree … where a couple of their very important models in their second year on the market — the ES and the RX, which together account for over two-thirds of lexus sales — both improved significantly.”

The survey of more than 52,000 original owners of 2005 model year vehicles reported an improvement in seven of nine categories, while two were unchanged from 2007.

The study also showed that five of the top 10 problems were among the 10 most frequently reported problems in a similar study done 3 years ago.

Owners are asked to report the types of problems they’ve experienced with their vehicle during the preceding 12 months.

Source: CNN