Buick, Jaguar overtake Lexus in reliability ranking

From Automotive News:

By Chrissie Thompson


Buick and Jaguar shared first place for brands with the most-dependable vehicles in a study released today, ending Lexus's 14-year reign.
Buick climbed from sixth place last year in market research firm J.D. Power and Associates' Vehicle Dependability Study, and Jaguar soared from 10th. They were followed by Lexus, Toyota and Mercury in the survey of owners of 3-year-old vehicles.
Buick's No. 1 ranking reflects General Motors' efforts to shake a reputation of poor dependability, said David Sargent, J.D. Power's vice president of automotive research.
"Part of GM's historical challenge has been that the customer's perception of GM's vehicles has been not in line with reliability. GM, as well as Ford, has made a lot of strides recently," he said. "Maybe 10 or 15 years ago their vehicles weren't as reliable as some of the imports, but I think today they've virtually caught up."
Jaguar, sold by Ford to India's Tata Motors last year, has fought similar stereotypes, Sargent said. In the U.S., the brand has had a reputation "of being somewhat unreliable."
Original owners of Buick and Jaguar models reported an average of 122 problems per 100 vehicles, four fewer than Lexus. In compiling the rankings, J.D. Power used surveys taken in October of more than 46,000 owners of 2006 model-year vehicles.