Lexus, Porsche most dependable cars in US

Top luxury brand Lexus and Porsche have topped the list of most dependable cars in America, while Land Rover remains anchored to the bottom of the chart.

Luxury brand Lexus has topped US vehicle dependability study that looked at problems experienced in the first three years of ownership, but the news isn't so good for makers of European brands, which filled six of the bottom 10 places on the list.

Luxury sports car maker Porsche was runner-up to Lexus, while Ford's luxury offshoot Lincoln ranked third, ahead of Toyota and Mercedes-Benz.

Five of the top 10 brands were Japanese, three were American and two were European.

At the other end of the spectrum, Land Rover came dead last, with owners likely to have three times the problems of Lexus owners (220 problems per 100 vehicles compared with 71)

Land Rover's sister brand Jaguar languished six spots from the bottom, while the Volkswagen group's well-documented quality problems saw both VW and Audi both finish in the bottom 10.

Among individual models, the Lexus RX SUV had the highest dependability with just 57 problems per 100 vehicles. Lexus's parent Toyota had seven vehicles that topped their individual segments for reliability, while General Motors had four and Honda two.

The survey is based on responses from 37,000 owners.