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Lexus tops JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study again, Buick bests Toyota

It shouldn't surprise anyone, but Lexus has once again taken the top spot in JD Power's Vehicle Dependability Study. That'd be the Japanese luxury brand's fourth straight year at the top of table. The big news, though, is the rise of Buick. General Motor's near-premium brand beat out Toyota to take second place, with 110 problems per 100 vehicles compared to Toyota's 111 problems. Lexus owners only reported 89 problems per 100 vehicles. Besides Buick's three-position jump, Scion enjoyed a major improvement, jumping 13 positions from 2014. Ram and Mitsubishi made big gains, as well, moving up 11 and 10 positions, respectively. In terms of individual segments, GM and Toyota both excelled, taking home seven segment awards each. The study wasn't good news for all involved, though. A number of popular automakers finished below the industry average of 147 problems per 100 vehicles, including Subaru, (157PP100), Volkswagen (165PP100), Ford/Hyundai (188PP100 each) and Mini (193PP100). The biggest losers (by a tremendous margin, we might add) were Land Rover and Fiat, recording 258 and 273 problems per 100 vehicles. The next closest brand was Jeep, with 197PP100. While the Vehicle Dependability Study uses the same measurement system as the Initial Quality Survey, the two metrics analyze very different things. The VDS looks at problems experienced by original owners of model year 2012 vehicles over the past 12 months, while the oft-quoted IQS focuses on problems in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership. Like the IQS, though, the VDS has a rather broad definition of what a problem is. Because of that, a low score from JD Power is no guarantee of extreme unreliability, so much as just poor design. In this most recent study, the two most reported problems focused on Bluetooth connectivity and the voice-command systems. The former leaves plenty of room for user error due to poor design (particularly true of the Bluetooth systems on the low-scoring Fords, Volkswagens and Subarus), while the second is something JD Power has already confirmed as being universally terrible. That makes means that while these studies are important, they shouldn't be taken as gospel when it comes to automotive reliability. News Source: JD PowerImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Jeremy Korzeniewski / AOL Buick Fiat Ford GM Hyundai Jeep Land Rover Lexus MINI Mitsubishi RAM Scion Subaru Toyota Volkswagen Auto Repair Ownership study

Days 3-5: Our 4 favorite Patagonia timelapse videos | Subarus in South America

Sorry for the break in daily updates, Autoblog In Patagonia fans. McGraw and I spent the last two nights at a hotel so remote, it doesn't even technically have an address – just coordinates. We barely had wifi access and couldn't even get a cell signal most of the time, but now we're back with another quick update about our adventures in South America. Since our last writing, we hopped in a Subaru Forester and checked out the massive Perito Moreno glacier, crossed the border into Chile and spent all of Thursday inside the Torres del Paine national park. We drove Outbacks and Crosstreks on some truly epic dirt roads up and down mountains, and even took a break to do a little fishing (we can't work all the time). Friday, our journey took us even more south to Punta Arenas, Chile, and on Saturday we'll cross the Straits of Magellan and head back into Argentina, to fulfill our quest of driving to the southernmost drivable point in the world (outside of Antarctica). Since we've had lots of time on our hands, we decided to take some timelapse videos of the epic scenery here in Chile, and that's what we're bringing you this time around, in the video above. We'll have another update soon. In the meantime, check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds to see what we've posted on our very spotty cell coverage. We can't wait to show you everything we experienced when the big, final story comes out later this month. Auto News Subaru Videos patagonia autoblog in patagonia

Subaru's STI motorsport arm celebrates 30 years of going fast

The letters W, R and X are often featured on the trunklid of a fast, blue Subaru, but the other important letters for a Subaru are STI – standing for Subaru Tecnica International. The STI motorsport brand brings to mind '90s World Rally Championship victories and Impreza legends such as the wide-bodied 1998 22B, but the division is actually a bit older: STI is celebrating its 30 th anniversary this week. Founded on April 2, 1988, Subaru's STI started out with tuned Legacy sedans. Its first car was a turbocharged Legacy, the RS RA from 1989, available only in a limited 100-unit run of Ceramic White cars, not the 555 Sonic Blue Mica or World Rally Blue that later became almost synonymous with hot Subarus. The RS RA produced 220 horsepower, which was very good for 1989. In January of the same year, three STI-modified Legacy Turbos were used to first break the 50,000 km, then the 100,000 km FIA World Speed Endurance records, with the cars run for 20 consecutive days at Arizona Test Center. The average speed was 138.78 mph, for 447 hours, 44 minutes and 9.887 seconds. That's quite a bit of driving, even in two-hour shifts. The first STI-branded Subaru vehicle was the Japanese-market Legacy STI in 1992, and the Impreza WRX STI followed it two years later. For some time, STI vehicles were the stuff of Gran Turismo gaming for most Subaru enthusiasts, until STI arrived in the United States in 2004. The first U.S.-bound model was the 300-horsepower WRX STI, a Peter Stevens-designed "Blob Eye" facelift of the second-generation Impreza. So far, STI's respectable tally stands at three WRC championships, 47 WRC wins, four Nurburgring endurance wins and a Nordschleife production sedan lap record set last year. Regarding STI's 30th anniversary year's production cars, there will be a limited-edition WRX STI Type RA and a STI-tuned BRZ tS for 2018. View 51 Photos Related Video: