Autoblog and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.The conventional order is Lexus first, Acura a respectable second and Infiniti a long way back. J.D. Power's 2026 dependability study puts Acura and Infiniti on exactly the same score, 233 problems per 100 vehicles each. Lexus is 82 problems lower.The comparison spans four stages of ownership, from the first 90 days to a decade, and the studies covering them are built differently enough to contradict each other. RepairPal, which counts what owners of 2010 to 2019 cars paid their mechanics rather than what they told a survey, ranks Acura second of 32 brands and Lexus seventh. Which one holds up best depends on how old the car is and on which of those bills you are the one paying.The First 90 DaysThe J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Initial Quality Study, published in June, surveyed owners of 2026 model-year vehicles after 90 days. The industry averaged 175 problems per 100 vehicles, where a lower score is better.AdvertisementAdvertisementLexus scored 156 PP100, third among premium brands behind Porsche and Genesis. Infiniti recorded 235 PP100, last of the 27 ranked brands. J.D. Power names only the top three in each segment in its initial quality release, and Acura is not among them.Three Years InAcura and Infiniti both recorded 233 PP100 in the 2026 Vehicle Dependability Study, placing them 21st and 22nd of the 28 ranked brands, and neither took a segment award. The study asked 33,268 owners of 2023 model-year cars about 184 problem areas, and the industry average came in at 204 PP100, the highest since the study was rebuilt in 2022.Lexus finished the same study at 151 PP100, its fourth consecutive win, with the IS named the most dependable model of any brand.Toyota scored 185 PP100, so Lexus improved on its parent by 34. The other two went the other way: Honda came in at 211 with Acura 22 behind it, and Nissan at 194 with Infiniti 39 behind.What Ten Years Is Projected To CostCarEdge puts the luxury average for maintenance and repair at $12,539 over ten years. Lexus comes in at $7,110, Acura at $8,414 and Infiniti at $11,836, with the probability of a repair over $500 at 18.75%, 26.26% and 33.22% respectively. Over the first five years Lexus is $1,414 clear of Infiniti, over the second five years $3,312.InfinitiAcura is the cheapest luxury brand to insure on CarEdge's national averages for a 40-year-old driver with a clean record, at $2,339 a year against $2,587 for Infiniti and $3,051 for Lexus. Across five years that gap is worth $3,560 between Acura and Lexus.AdvertisementAdvertisementiSeeCars puts the Lexus RX 350 at 67% of its value after five years, the strongest figure in the luxury midsize class, against 50.2% for the Acura MDX and 41.7% for the Infiniti QX60. On a $55,000 car that spread is roughly $13,900, larger than the maintenance and insurance gaps in this comparison put together.LexusWhere The Two Cost Sources DisagreeConsumer Reports runs two separate rankings that are easy to mix up. The first is a ten-year cost ranking built from what members say they actually paid out of pocket, covering 29 brands. On that ranking, Lexus places 15th, behind Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia and Jeep. Acura places 18th and Infiniti 22nd.Both cost sources put the three brands in the same order, but they disagree on how Lexus compares with the wider market. CarEdge forecasts repair cost and repair probability from aggregated invoice data, which puts Lexus second among luxury brands. Consumer Reports' cost ranking records what owners spent in the last 12 months and does not separate an expensive scheduled service at a premium dealer from a breakdown, which puts Lexus in the bottom half of all 29 brands.What Owners Of Older Cars Actually PaidRepairPal rates brands from repair invoices covering 2010 to 2019 vehicles, scoring cost, frequency and severity. Acura ranks second of 32 at $501 a year and 0.4 shop visits. Lexus ranks seventh at $551 and 0.5 visits. Infiniti ranks 16th at $638 and 0.7 visits, with 10% of repairs severe against 8% for the other two. The average across all models is $652.AcuraOn the oldest cars in any of these data sets, then, Acura beats Lexus on every component of the rating, by $50 a year and a tenth of a shop visit. The prediction data on newer vehicles runs the other way, with Consumer Reports rating the redesigned MDX and Integra average while no Lexus falls below it. Acura's older cars ran on long-serving Honda mechanicals, and its newer ones have absorbed new platforms, transmissions and infotainment in a short span. Anyone shopping Acura vs. Lexus on the used market is looking at a different brand from the one the 2026 studies describe.When A Brand Disappears From The RankingsConsumer Reports also publishes a separate reliability score, distinct from the cost ranking above, scored 0 to 100 rather than in dollars. That score excluded Infiniti on sample size, requiring two models across two recent model years. The exclusion reflects how few Infinitis are sold rather than how they perform, and the nearest signal is Nissan, which shares much of the componentry and ranked sixth on the same score.AdvertisementAdvertisementWhere Infiniti was eligible the results are consistent: last of 27 in initial quality, 22nd in three-year dependability, 22nd of 29 on the Consumer Reports cost ranking, 16th of 32 on repair invoices, and the most expensive of the three in both ten-year cost rankings. On the only measure where Acura vs. Infiniti is close, the three-year J.D. Power score, the two are level.On the Consumer Reports reliability score, Acura finished seventh, one place behind Nissan. Lexus finished third behind Toyota and Subaru at 60 out of 100, with no model rated below average.The Three Brands At Every Stage Of OwnershipOwnership stageLexusAcuraInfinitiBestFirst 90 days156 PP100Not ranked235 PP100LexusThree years151 PP100233 PP100233 PP100LexusFive-year value retained67%50.2%41.7%LexusProjected upkeep over 10 years$7,110$8,414$11,836LexusOlder cars, actual repairs$551/year$501/year$638/yearAcuraThe answer moves with the calendar, which is why two shoppers can read the same studies and come away with opposite conclusions about Acura and Lexus. Infiniti is the one brand the calendar does not help. It finishes ahead of neither rival in any of the studies here, and its exclusion from the Consumer Reports reliability score leaves its newest cars less documented than either rival's.This story was originally published by Autoblog on Aug 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the Features section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.