American Cars Most Dependable

For years, I've purchased American cars -- Ford and Mercury brands, to be exact.
And for years I've said they are good, reliable cars.
And for years I've also said that you don't have to buy a foreign brand.
And all along I've encouraged others top buy American.

Now from Bengt Halvorson at the Car Connection comes the proof of what I've been saying:
No, buying American won't get you an undependable disaster-on-wheels; in fact, it's likely to get you a more reliable, trouble-free car.In the latest proof of this, from marketing-information authority J.D. Power and Associates, seven of the ten models with the lowest number of problems, on average, come from Ford and GM.
That list of most dependable vehicles, from J.D. Power's 2010 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS), includes the Buick LaCrosse, Buick Lucerne, Cadillac DTS, Ford Five Hundred, Lincoln MKZ, Mercury Milan, and Mercury Montego.
The study gauges dependability by counting problems experienced—broken into 198 different classifications—by the original owners (more than 52,000 in all) of three-year-old (2007 model year) vehicles. From that, J.D. Power calculates the total number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles to find overall dependability.
Power pointed out that Cadillac, Ford, Hyundai, Lincoln, and Mercury all do well in dependability but their consumer perceptions lag and these brands are often avoided as a result, as the firm has found in its annual Avoider Study. J.D. Power ranked vehicle models in 19 different segments, such as "large pickup" or "compact premium sporty car."