The 10 most reliable car brands - and the 10 LEAST

Close

News

4 mins read

19 May 2026

We recently reported the latest results from the reliability survey from our sister magazine What Car?, highlighting the car models we believe are the most reliable - and the cars that are least reliable.

In this story, we're looking at the car brands themselves, with a reliability rating for each brand. This is for cars up to five years old. We start with counting down to the most reliable brand. And then we'll countdown to the least reliable. Let's take a look:

10: Citroën - 93.9%

This is a respectable result for Citroën. Indeed, it ranks as the best-performing Stellantis brand in the survey after Vauxhall. It’s considerably ahead of Alfa Romeo, for example, which is in 17th place.

9: Lexus – 94.2%

Lexus consistently ranks highly in our survey, but this year suffered because of persistent battery issues that have affected the new LBX Hybrid. This contrasted with the Lexus RX SUV (pictured), which our survey suggests is the most reliable luxury car.

8: Kia – 94.4%

Kia deserves praise this year for its high ranking, which comes partly thanks to the 100% reliability rating of its EV3 model (pictured). Also helping: The Kia Ceed is the most highly rated family car, with a score of 98.8%.

7: Tesla – 94.5%

Tesla scored very well in the survey – This was driven by very good scored for the Tesla Model Y (pictured), which with 97.1% was the third most reliable electric SUV. The Model 3 scored well also.

6: BMW – 94.6%

BMW’s good result was driven by good scores from several of its models. At 98.0%, the petrol-powered BMW 3 Series (pictured) was the second-most reliable executive car, while the 97.4% score of the BMW i3 made it the second-most reliable family car, and indeed the most reliable electric car overall. The BMW X5 was the second-most reliable luxury car, with a score of 96.2%.

5: Vauxhall – 95.1%

Vauxhall/Opel’s excellent result here was greatly helped by the strong result of the 2024 Grandland (pictured). The petrol version is the most reliable family SUV, with a sore of 99.6%; it’s notably much more reliable than the previous model Grandland.

4: Toyota – 95.2%

Toyota has gone up one position in the table against last year. Three of its models stood out: the Aygo X (pictured) was the second-most reliable small car (with a score of 99.7%), the RAV4 was the second-most reliable family SUV (with a score of 99.2%), and the GR Yaris, which is the most reliable sports car, with a perfect score of 100%.

3: Suzuki – 95.7%

Suzuki did very well, in large part to good scores for its new S-Cross compact SUV (pictured). The 2017-2024 Swift small car also did well.

2: Mini – 96.4%

Mini was in first place last year. It still did well this year; its core Mini hatchback model (2014-2024, pictured) scored a very impressive 99.1%, making it the third-most reliable small car.

Back to top

1: Honda – 99.6%

Honda is at the top of the table this year. Several of its models did very well. The Civic (pictured) was the third-most reliable family car, with a score of 97.3%. The new HR-V and Jazz models all score well too. Very well done, Honda!

So that’s the 10 most reliable car brands – what about the least reliable? Read on:

10: Volvo – 90.9%

Volvo’s overall score was dragged down by the 2016-2023 S90 and V90 (pictured) models. They scored only 76.7%, making them the second-most unreliable executive cars. Infotainment systems account for 24% of all issues with these models.

9= Audi – 90.6%

Audi’s overall score was dragged down by poor numbers from the current Q7 model. This was the least reliable seven-seater, with a score of 78.6%. It was also impacted by some very high costs for repairs.

9= Mercedes-Benz – 90.6%

Two models especially impacted Mercedes this year: The current C-Class was the least reliable executive car, with a score of 76.3%. Meanwhile, the current GLE-Class is the third most unreliable luxury car, with a score of 82.0%.

7= Ford - 90.5%

Ford models did at least not appear in any bottom-three classes this year, but its lower-than-average scores across its range dragged down its overall score this year.

7= Volkswagen – 90.5%

Three models contributed to the poor score by Volkswagen this year: The current Golf is the third least-reliable family car, with a score of 82.2%. The current Tiguan is the least-reliable family SUV, with a score of just 64.2%; lastly, the ID 4 (pictured) is the least reliable electric SUV, with a score of 79.6%.

5: Land Rover – 90.4%

Land Rover’s score rose above 90% this year, a marked improvement over last year. The current Discovery Sport model (pictured) with the second-last reliable seven-seater car, with an overall score of 81.8%.

Back to top

4: Jaguar – 90.2%

Jaguar models did at least not appear in any bottom-three classes this year, but lower-than-average scores for many of its models dragged down its overall score this year.

3: Fiat – 90.1%

Fiat’s overall rating this year is a marked improvement on last year, and none of its models appeared in any bottom-three classes this year.

2: Nissan – 89.9%

Two Juke models dragged down Nissan’s score. The current Juke (petrol) was the least reliable small SUV, with a score of just 55.2%, the lowest of any car this year. Meanwhile, the hybrid Juke is notably more reliable (at 89.0%) but the model does seem to have problems with its gearbox and infotainment systems. Finally, the Ariya is the second-least reliable electric SUV, with a score of 80.9%.

1: MG – 88.9%

MG came in last place a year ago too, but that time it scored 76.9% so this is at least a big improvement. The current MG 3 model seems to be a notable problem area; it was the third-least reliable small car, with a score of 87.9%. The car’s exhaust system seems to be a particular area of concern for many owners.

If you enjoyed this story, please click the Follow button above to see more like it from Autocar