Chevrolet
There's no feeling quite like having a shiny new car in the drive way. Everything from the glistening paint job to the new-car smell is enough to help the owner find automotive Nirvana. But once the bliss goes away, what are the cars actually like to live with?
To find out, J.D. Power sought the responses of 34,000 original owners of 2012 model cars, asking them what it's been like to own their three-year old cars over the last 12 months. The results of these questions have been assembled for the 2015 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study.
"At the three-year point, many owners are thinking about replacing their vehicles, and we find that how they feel about their current vehicle's quality and dependability impacts their intent to consider purchasing the same brand again," J.D. Power vice president Renee Stephens said.
Now in its 26th year, the latest VDS found that the top two problems reported by consumers in the study were the lack of Bluetooth connectivity and the misinterpretation of commands by the car's voice recognition system. Not all cars are created equal. But amazingly, two mammoth companies - General Motors, with its assorted divisions, and Toyota/Scion/Lexus - dominated to win 14 of the 19 VDS categories.