Currently reading: Suzuki and Toyota top What Car? Reliability Survey
Yaris and SX4 S-Cross score perfect marks in poll of more than 18,000 car owners, while Nissan Leaf is top electric vehicle

The Suzuki SX4 S-Cross and Toyota Yaris have shared top honours in the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, with both achieving full marks.

The annual study by Autocar’s sister title features 159 models from 31 brands and is based on data from more than 18,000 car owners. Suzuki topped the overall brand reliability rankings for cars up to four years old. 

There was a strong result for the first-generation Nissan Leaf, which was the top electric car in the rankings and achieved the third highest score overall at 99.7%. The Toyota RAV4 took fourth, with the BMW 3 Series the top European car in fifth place.

The Tesla Model S was bottom of the rankings, with a score of 50.9%, ahead of the Range Rover (67.3%) and diesel Ford Edge (70.7%). In a statement, Tesla said the survey results were "at odds" with their internal customer satisfaction figures and other studies.

The rankings were calculated based on feedback from owners, factoring in how much a fault cost to repair and how long a vehicle was off the road.

The full What Car? survey results can be found here.

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Toyota Yaris review

Suzuki SX4 S-Cross review

 

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The original Toyota Yaris was a landmark car, since then it has lost ground to more talented rivals. Can it regain its crown from the formidable and long in the tooth Ford Fiesta?

James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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danielcoote 8 September 2018

Perceived quality vs genuine quality

Took a quick read of the full results and noticed that the soft squashy plastics brand didn't fair so well - especially Audi's diesels.

Would you rather have the perceived quality largely presented to you by an interior; or would you prefer genuine quality and reliability?

Seems that tens of thousands of buyers each year go for the perceived type......

Riley 1.5 6 September 2018

Not surprised about Suzuki

From personal experience my dealership is excellent. They have been Suzuki dealers for years and are not part of some huge chain, so you know the staff by name and, more importantly, they know you. I've bought cars from garages that are part of multi-franchise operations with an alarming turnover of staff so you never get to build up a trust that your vehicle will be sorted should a fault develop. For many people a car that starts, stops and goes is all they really need but, from reading comments over the years, some companies can't even get that right.

Jeremy 6 September 2018

Amazing!

Yet again Land Rover/Range Rover do terribly in a reliability index (3 of the worst 5 cars overall are Range Rover, Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport) and yet I guarantee that Autocar and What Car will continue to list them as 'Best Buys'.

Amazing!