With Britons in the midst of the biggest cost-of-living crunch for a generation, the last thing households need is for their car to cost them an arm and a leg in repair bills.
Fortunately, for prospective buyers there are surveys where owners can give feedback on how dependable their car is – and if they’d recommend it to others based on their own experiences.
What Car?’s is one of the biggest car reliability polls in the country garnering feedback from almost 25,000 driver – and it has given us details of which brands can be trusted not to go wrong and those that regularly encounter issues.
This year’s report says there are four cars that have flawless track records, while a Land Rover – which is still in showrooms today – stands out with the lowest reliability score out of almost 250 models analysed.
Most and least reliable cars: With Britons currently enduring the biggest cost-of-living crisis for a generation, the last thing households need is for their car to cost them an arm and a leg in repair bills. We reveal the brands and models that will spare you big costs – and those than you can’t always depend on
What Car? says it has received feedback from 24,927 UK drivers about the cars they run and how dependable they’ve been in the last two years. Some 32 brands have been ranked, while 248 models have reliability scores out of 100 per cent.
Hybrids are the type of car to choose if your priority is reliability, scoring an average of 95.4 per cent overall in the survey, which placed it at the top of the 12 vehicle classes reviewed.
By contrast, electric cars averaged a 90.9 per cent reliability score, making them the third least dependable class, ahead of only luxury cars and luxury SUVs.
Lexus was named the most dependable of all brands with a commendable overall score of 98.4 per cent. It was followed by its parent company, Toyota, with 97.2 per cent, with both manufacturers known for producing solid, reliable vehicles.
However, there were some big surprises near the top of the order, not least with Mini placing third overall with a 97 per cent reliability score – a testament to its British manufacturing plant in Oxford where the hatchback and Mini Electric are produced.
Another potential shock for drivers is the inclusion of both MG Motor and Dacia in the top 10 most reliable brands, considering their budget-friendly range of cars.
Chinese owned MG scored a 95 per cent rating, marginally ahead of Dacia with a 94.4 per cent reliability score, which secured ninth and tenth spots respectively.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Jeep was named the least dependable make, with an overall reliability score of just 77 per cent.
The US brand – which is part of the huge Stellantis motor group – received by far the worst report from owners, with Land Rover second in the least-reliable makes table with a score of 81.4 per cent.
European names dominated the least-reliable brands chart, with Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Jaguar, Vauxhall and Mercedes making up six of the remaining eight places at the bottom end of the league table.
In terms of specific models, four cars – incredibly – achieved a perfect 100 per cent rating: the current versions of the Hyundai Tucson and Mini Convertible and the used-only Kia Soul (2014-2019) and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (2017-2021).
In contrast, the lowest reliability score went to the Land Rover Discovery, which remains in showrooms today. Its 70.7% rating suggests the 4X4 is causing a few headaches for owners.
The survey only includes cars aged up to five years old to give buyers a steer when purchasing a brand-new model from showrooms or a nearly-new vehicle second-hand.
Owners were asked by What Car? whether their car had gone wrong in the past two years, how long repairs took and how much they cost, with these factors determining the overall reliability score for each model and brand.
Of the 24,927 drivers surveyed this year, a fifth (21 per cent) said they had experienced a fault with their motor.
And although 83 per cent of these issues were repaired free of charge – likely under warranty – almost one in ten (nine per cent) cost drivers between £101 and £500. An unlucky two per cent said they had to fork out more than £1,500 to get their car fixed.
Although over a third (37 per cent) of problematic vehicles could still be driven and were fixed within a day, a quarter (26 per cent) took more than a week to get back on the road, the report found.
What Car?’s editor, Steve Huntingford, says that with everyone feeling the pinch during the cost-of-living crunch right now, unexpected car repair bills are the ‘last thing any of us need’.
He added: ‘The secret to keeping motoring costs down is to select the make and model of your new or used car carefully. Pick a dependable one and you should have no nasty surprises.
‘And you don’t have to break the bank to buy a reliable car, because some of the highest scoring brands sell some of the most affordable models.’
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