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Lexus, Mazda and Subaru top Consumer Reports Brand Report Cards

A revised methodology in devising its annual Car Brand Report Cards has seen Consumer Reports award Lexus its top overall ranking for 2013. For the first time ever, the institute broke out individual brands from their larger corporate umbrellas, meaning car makers like Lexus and Scion were judged independently from parent company Toyota. That strategy worked out well for Lexus, as the luxury brand earned a top report card score of 79 for the 2013 model year.
The institute has recommended every one of the Lexus models it has tested to date, and said that the company's products won out thanks to "a foundation of plush and very reliable vehicles."
Meanwhile, Mazda and Subaru tied for the second-highest scoring report cars, with scores of 76. Subaru earned praised for sporting models like the BRZ, which CR testers apparently had a lot of fun driving (naturally), while the Mazda products were lauded for their blend of practicality, sportiness and efficiency. Both of the Japanese brands offered good handling, fuel economy and versatility, said Consumer Reports.

Lexus is sending its 2017 RC F GT3 to do battle in the US and Japan

Bare carbon fiber doesn't do much to tone down the swoopy, animal RC F GT3, does it? This is the latest tweak of the Lexus GT3 racer, which appeared in an earlier spec with the American team F Performance Racing. (Incidentally, the team changed its name to 3GT Racing recently to further differentiate itself from Lexus.) The latest RC F racer will compete in IMSA and Super GT racing. Lexus will field two cars in each series. Since GT3 and the Japanese GT300 cars share a spec, this RC F GT3 will race as an RC F GT300 in Japan with the LM Corsa team. On our side of the Pacific, the car will debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona on January 29th, and compete with the aforementioned 3GT Racing team in the GTD category of the IMSA Championship Series. Barring any unannounced changes, the 2,756-pound coupe will pack a front-mounted V8 derived from the production RC F's engine and tuned to deliver over 540 horsepower, depending on series regulations. It should be mentioned that in Japan, the car will race alongside its bigger brother, the LC 500 GT500 car, which we told you about last year. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Lexus GAZOO Racing RC F GT3 Motorsports Lexus Coupe Racing Vehicles lexus rc f lexus rc f gt3

Buick, Lexus top J.D. Power survey, as vehicle service improves overall

Buick and Lexus returned to their customary place atop J.D. Power's scorecard of satisfaction with dealership service departments. In the Customer Service Index Study, out Thursday, Buick scored 860 on a 1,000-point scale for mass-market brands and has topped this ranking in three of the past four years. Lexus topped the list of luxury brands with a score of 874. Fiat and Land Rover were the bottom-dwellers in the two categories. Buick and Lexus also ranked highly in the research company's overall Vehicle Dependability Study rankings out recently. The customer experience at car dealerships has improved steadily, with the overall industry score rising in seven of the past eight years. And one statistic is particularly remarkable: 94 percent of customers say their car was fixed right the first time. The dominant area of difficulty in repairs seems to be infotainment systems. Only 80 percent of respondents said their stereo was fixed right the first time. And in last month's Vehicle Dependability Study, J.D. Power reported that infotainment systems were the most commonly reported vehicle issue, accounting for 22 percent of all problems reported, up 2 percent from the previous year. J.D. Power surveyed 70,000 customers for the Customer Service Index Study. For the Vehicle Dependability Study, it surveyed 35,186 first owners of 2014 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. Below are charts for both the current study and the complementary overall brand dependability survey. Related video: