Cars are a huge expense. For most people, it’s the second biggest monthly expense after your mortgage or rent. For many businesses, having multiple cars in your fleet can be costly because maintenance and repair costs for vehicles can build up. However, these concerns can be reduced by choosing reliable cars. A reliable car ensures that your chance of a breakdown or faults are reduced, which means lower maintenance and repair costs.
Over the years, the reliability of cars has improved overall, however, there are some cars that have scored higher than others. Data collected through studies and research can give us an indication on car reliability. The most notable reliability score is given by the Reliability Index developed by Warranty Direct, which uses data on hundreds and thousands of vehicles that it’s covered in the past. Each vehicle is given a score. The higher the Reliability Index Score, the worse the car is. The lower the score, the better the car is. This score is given on the basis of how many times a car fails, the cost of repairing it, the average amount of time it spends off the road due to repairs, average age and mileage of vehicles.
Additionally, a number of surveys shed light on the reliability of cars. For example, What Car? carried out a survey of over 18,000 people with ratings for 159 models from 31 different car brands. Last year Consumer Reports also released its annual list of top 10 reliable cars by analysing survey responses on more than 500,000 vehicles. And J.D. Power, a global leader in consumer insights, evaluated the reliability of cars from the past four years, and came up with a list of the “most dependable cars”.
Looking at the research, we’ve picked the top 10 car brands (in no particular order) that you can count on. It’s important to remember that although these cars are considered highly reliable, it doesn’t mean your car is immune from issues. In general, the research shows that most car brands that are considered reliable are Japanese, however there are a few other surprising automakers in the mix too.