It’s surprising to see a Japanese car-maker perform so poorly. Using data from over 131,000 extended car warranty plans, the Reliability Index judges every car on things like the frequency of repairs and repair costs. Hyundai cars generally scored very well. Mazda just misses out on a top 10 spot in this reliability ranking. To separate the fact from the fiction, we’ve teamed up with the aftermarket warranty provider Warranty Wise to find out which car brands perform best and worst for reliability. Slideshow story - click the right-hand arrow above to continue: Honda has long impressed us with its engineering standards, so it’s no surprise to see it on the Top 10. Paying more money for poorer reliability just doesn’t seem right. Find your perfect car with our While its XJ (pictured) is the most reliable luxury car by a decent margin, the British brand is let down by poor showings for the XE and XF, which come bottom in their respective classes. 27 Vauxhall 89.4%
Car chooser. 31 Land Rover 81.3%, What Car? In this particular head-to-head, Vauxhall just ekes ahead on the basis that its cars are tend to be a bit older when they go wrong, and tend to have shorter repair times. This is the full results of the survey by make - Lexus is the most reliable car make. 12 Dacia 94.5%
Audi S3 vs BMW M135i vs Mercedes-AMG A35 drag race, Bentley Flying Spur W12 vs BMW M2 CS drag race, Porsche 911 Turbo S vs Ferrari 488 Pista vs Lamborghini Huracan Performante drag race, Volvo V60 T8 vs BMW M340i Touring vs Audi S4 Avant drag race, New Land Rover Defender vs old Land Rover Defender tug-of-war, Porsche 911 GT3 vs Bentley Continental GT W12 drag race, Mercedes Actros vs Scania R500 lorry drag race. Going on Warranty Wise’s warranty claim data, Fiat’s reliability record flies in the face of the notion that Italian cars are prone to breaking down all the time. Porsche has traditionally had a strong reputation for making bullet-proof cars, so this is a disappointing showing. Electric cars put to the ultimate range test, Buying a car during the coronavirus outbreak, Mercedes-AMG A45 S vs Jaguar Project 8 drag race, Spoiler Alert: The Modifications That Devalue Cars the Most, carwow 1/4-mile (400m) drag-race leaderboard. Another brand with a 67% reliability rating from Warranty Wise is Ford. 19 Fiat 93.3%
3 Suzuki 97.3%
Skoda’s managed to squeeze itself into the top half of this reliability run-down and, according to Warranty Wise’s figures, it’s a fairly respectable brand when it comes to mechanical durability. 29 Jeep 84.4%
30 Renault 84.2%
11 Volvo 94.7%
With a rating of 53%, Audi is in the same ballpark as Alfa Romeo when it comes to dependability, and Audis tend to come with heftier repair bills, too. 2 Toyota 97.7%
A rating of 64% puts Skoda among many of the carmakers it directly competes with, and the average repair bills according to the warranty claim data aren’t too bad. A 64% overall rating is fairly decent in this company and, based on the warranty repair claim data, Peugeot’s don’t tend to cost too much money to bring back into full working order. However, it appears they tend to cost quite a bit to fix because Warranty Wise’s data shows the average repair claim for Land Rover cars came in at nearly £1,300. Based on the data, Renault repair bills aren’t too steep either, because the average warranty claim came in at £560. Although, with average repair bills of £790, Volvo’s tend to develop slightly costlier faults than some cars on this list. Jaguar’s reliability rating may be quite a bit higher than its sister brand Land Rover’s, but it isn’t enough to stop the Coventry-based carmaker from ranking towards the bottom of this list. According to Warranty Wise, Mini is an above-average brand when it comes to reliability – its overall rating comes in at 60%, and the average repair bills of £790 put Mini just above the half-way point in this list for affordability. At the very end, we'll present the full table of results so you can see how your car make fared. Lexus scalps two out of three places in the most reliable hybrid and electric car class with its CT (pictured) and NX models, the former with a remarkable 100% score. Jeep’s poor performance was driven in the main by a low 77.1% score for its Renegade (pictured) small SUV. And, the claim data suggests you won’t have to fork out too much if your Citroen does end up needing a trip to your nearest garage. Dealers come to you with their best deals. It’s testament to how strong overall other car brands are, though, that Mini comes in at a lowly 20th place in this reliability league table. Japanese carmakers are perceived by some to be a byword for reliability, so it’s perhaps a surprise to see Mitsubishi so far down this list. 18 Peugeot 93.4%
8 Mini 95.4%
Toyotas were present in many car-class top threes in our survey, with the RAV4 (pictured) coming home as the most reliable large SUV, with top three mentions for the Auris (family car category) and Yaris Hybrid (hybrid category). Nissan owes its low overall ranking to low scores for its, Jeep’s poor performance was driven in the main by a low 77.1% score for its, Renault’s low overall ranking is in large part down to poor results from its, Land Rover’s poor result was driven in part by it taking all three positions in the least reliable luxury SUV class with its, Most (and least) reliable electric and hybrid cars. 26 Jaguar 89.5%
It turns out they’re pretty reliable cars, too, because Smart has been given an overall reliability score of 73%. Then we’ll look at the least reliable, again starting at number 10 before counting down to the least reliable. Luxury cars are the least reliable. Warranty Wise takes into account a car’s age, repair cost, the time taken for it to be repaired, and the frequency of repairs when giving it a reliability score – and this applies to brands, too.