Buick finished as the highest-ranked mass market brand in J.D. Power’s 2026 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, posting 160 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) — beating Toyota’s 185 PP100 and Honda’s 211 PP100 outright. It’s the second year in a row Buick has taken the top mass market spot, according to General Motors’ own announcement of the results.

Key Points

• Buick: 160 PP100, best of any mass market brand for the second consecutive year.
• MINI: 168 PP100, second among mass market brands.
• Chevrolet: 178 PP100, third among mass market brands and GM’s second nameplate in the top five.
• Toyota: 185 PP100 — a real gap behind Buick despite Toyota’s broader reputation for reliability.
• Honda: 211 PP100, actually worse than the industry average.
• Industry average: 204 PP100, the worst overall dependability score since the study’s 2022 methodology redesign.

A Real Score, Not a Marketing Line

J.D. Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study measures problems reported by original owners of three-year-old vehicles across more than 180 specific trouble spots, from infotainment glitches to mechanical failures. A lower PP100 score means fewer problems per 100 vehicles — Buick’s 160 means, on average, well under two problems reported per vehicle over three years of ownership, a genuinely strong result in an industry where the average brand logged 204 problems per 100 vehicles this year, a two-point jump from 2025 and the category’s worst showing in four years.

Toyota still earned plenty of individual model honors — its Lexus division topped the entire study across all brands, mass market and luxury combined, at 151 PP100, and Toyota-badged vehicles picked up eight model-level awards, more than any other manufacturer, according to an independent breakdown of the full rankings. But at the brand level, in the mass market segment specifically, Buick’s 160 beat Toyota’s 185 by a real margin — 25 fewer reported problems per 100 vehicles, not a rounding error.

Why It Matters for Buick

“Third-party studies like the JD Power VDS are important because they give us an external view of how our vehicles are performing over time and how customers experience them in the real world,” said Marcos Purty, GM’s vice president of global quality, in the company’s own statement on the results. GM said it uses the findings alongside its internal data to guide where it improves vehicles going forward.

Buick’s win comes at a moment when infotainment problems and electrified-powertrain complaints are dragging down scores industrywide, per J.D. Power’s own data — making a two-year streak at the top of the mass market segment a genuine standout rather than a one-off result.