Yawn! Chalk up another win for Lexus, on yet another J.D. Power survey: the 2006 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS) released today. That's 12 in a row for the automaker.

SLIDESHOW (13)

Slideshow | All Shots

J.D. Power & Associates surveyed 37 brands to determine problems found by owners of 2003 model-year cars. The survey showed a fairly even mixture among luxury cars at the top (typically those with more technology) and non-luxury brands. Lexus, Cadillac, Acura, Jaguar, BMW, and Infiniti made the top ten list, but so did Mercury, Buick, Toyota, and Honda. (Power ranks Buicks as non-luxury cars.)

"In general, [tech features do] not have a very large impact on the vehicle dependability experience," says Neal Oddes, director of product research and analysis for J.D. Power. He noted that there was less technology on 2003 cars than there is now. "As penetration [increases], maybe a couple problems will come up."

More important, the dependability gap is narrowing between luxury and non-luxury vehicles. "The industry continues to make improvements in long-term vehicle quality, and not just among luxury makes that benefit from smaller production volumes on the assembly line," Oddes said. "Many high-volume, mass-marketed brands have acquired a foundation of quality products from which to challenge the normally strong performances of the luxury brands.

"What this means for consumers is that they don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to get a high-quality used vehicle, and vehicles with high long-term dependability ratings retain more of their original value than brands with lower dependability ratings. This pays off for the consumer when it's time to trade in their vehicle," Oddes said.

Put another way, since all used cars are getting better, buyers of used cars might look to the very bottom of the survey for cars with depressed used-car prices—Land Rover, Saab, Suzuki, Kia, Hummer, and VW—for good deals.

Power rates cars based on "PP100," or problems per 100 cars. The results ranged this year from 136 (Lexus) to 438 (Land Rover). Oddes said luxury cars ranked higher than non-luxury cars by 15 problems per 100; in 2003, the gap was 31 PP100.

How did technology-focused brands fare on the VDS survey? Among makes that received Digital Drive awards from PC Magazine and Technoride for superior tech features, here's how they fared on the VDS: number 4 (Cadillac), 5 (Toyota), 6 (Honda), 7 (Acura), 9 (BMW), 10 (Infiniti), 15 (Pontiac), 18 (Mercedes-Benz), and 28 (Audi).

Power conducts several auto surveys each year. The Initial Quality Study (IQS) measures problems in the first 90 days of ownership, although this year it added a section asking about problems with design issues, meaning ergonomic and cockpit design, and as a consequence, the tech-heavy German automakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi tanked, although to their embarrassment, Porsche wound up first in the survey, followed by Lexus. The APEAL, or Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout survey focuses more on how customers respond emotionally to their cars; Porsche, BMW, Mercede-Benz, Lexus, and Infiniti were the top five automakers.

Why did tech cars falter this year in Power's IQS? Find out here.

See our slideshow (above) for a rundown of above-average cars. This year the average was 227 problems per 100, compared with 237 and 269 PP100 the previous two years.

These are the cars that ranked below average, where more PP100 means a less reliable used car: