| Detroit Free Press WASHINGTON -- Toyota Motor Co.'s Lexus brand recaptured the top spot in J.D. Power and Associates annual survey of long-term vehicle quality released Thursday, which found a 5 percent reduction of problems found in three-year-old models. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS U.S. automakers maintained some of their gains in recent years versus the top Japanese brands, with Mercury and Cadillac taking the second and third slots behind Lexus. Buick, which tied with Lexus for the top ranking last year, fell to sixth, while Lincoln was the only other U.S. brand in the top 10. But some U.S. brands, including Chevrolet and Jeep, saw their problems creep up from last year's study. J.D. Power said among 19 vehicle classes, Lexus has the highest-quality rankings in six, while Toyota topped five others. Lexus cut its problems to 120 per 100 vehicles, a 17 percent improvement from last year's study, and 31 problems per 100 vehicles better than second-place Mercury. Ford and Honda won two segment awards apiece, while Buick, Mercury, Chevrolet, Hyundai and Mazda claimed one each. Honda and Toyota tied for the award in small sport utility vehicles. For its study, J.D. Power surveyed 52,000 original owners of 2005 model-year vehicles. The top five complaints: wind noise, noisy brakes, vehicle pulling left or right, instrument panel complaints and excessive window fogging. Despite steadily improving scores in the survey over the past few years -- and focusing on some problems such as reducing wind noise -- U.S. automakers have not been able to convert such results into higher sales. Ford was the only U.S. automaker to have all of its brands rank above the industry average. GM brands were scattered throughout the rankings; Saab has the largest improvement of any brand, but scores for Buick, Chevrolet, GMC and Pontiac all worsened. Chrysler LLC once again saw its three brands rank below industry average. While Chrysler and Dodge vehicles improved on their scores, Jeep's problems increased. The worst performer was Land Rover, with 344 problems per 100 vehicles. Ford sold the brand to India's Tata Motors earlier this year.
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