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2012's most reliable cars

Emma Lunn
by Lovemoney Staff Emma Lunn on 30 July 2012  |  Comments 20 comments

If you want to buy a car that won't let you down, two new surveys point to Japanese-made vehicles as the most reliable.

2012's most reliable cars

The 2012 Which? Car survey surveyed 47,716 new cars to compile a top ten list of the most reliable. Five on the list were Japanese with the remaining coming from France (two), Germany (two) and Czech Republic (one).

The survey found there can be a huge difference between the best and worst car models when it comes to reliability and faults. And those people that assume paying a lot of money for a new car will mean it will be problem-free could be disappointed: Which? found the opposite to be true with expensive cars often among the most unreliable.

The most reliable car of 2012

Budget brand Skoda topped the Which? dependability chart, with petrol versions of its Yeti compact 4x4 chalking up an almost faultless score of 98%. The diesel version of the Yeti scored 93%.

For drivers of a certain age Skodas are best known for being the butt of all car jokes but the brand has successfully undergone an image overhaul in the past few years.

Surprisingly, another petrol 4x4 follows in second place - the Honda CR-V which scored an impressive 97%.

But languishing at the other end of the new car reliability table is a rather more luxurious 4x4 - the Range Rover Sport. Despite costing nearly £50,000 (to the Yeti's £15,000), it can muster only a paltry 63.4% for reliability.

The top ten

The Which? top 10 reliable new cars looks like this:

1. Skoda Yeti (2009-, petrol versions) 98%

2. Honda CR-V (2007-, petrol versions) 97%

3. Citroën C1 (2005-) 96.9%

4. VW Passat/Passat estate (2010-) 96.5%

5. Toyota Auris Hybrid (2010-) 96.4%

6. Honda Insight (2009-) 96.1%

=6. Renault Mégane (2008-) 96.1%

8. Honda Jazz (2008-) 96%

9. BMW 1 Series Coupé (2008-) 95.9%

10. Nissan Note (2006-, petrol versions) 95.8%

Japanese domination

Five of the top reliable models in the Which? survey are Japanese: Honda Toyota and Nissan are all Japanese car makers.

The Which? results echoed a similar survey by Warranty Direct and What Car? It found Honda, Toyota and Lexus to be the top three manufacturers for reliability.

Based on cars between three and 10-years-old, the Warranty Direct survey showed that Hondas have only a 10% chance of breaking down in any given 12-month period. The rate for Toyota was 17% and for Lexus 18%.

In contrast Land Rover had a breakdown rate of 71% and was bottom of the table for reliability. Luxury cars didn’t fare too well either and were towards the bottom of the table: Jaguar had a 43% breakdown rate and Mercedez Benz 45%.

Just one non-Far East manufacturer – Chrysler, which is based in the US - made it into the Warranty Direct top 10.

The least reliable

So, which car manufacturers should you avoid if you don’t want to spend hours on the hard shoulder and hundreds of pounds on car repairs?

Unfortunately it’s a British brand at the bottom of the reliability table. Despite reporting a 34% rise in profits this year, Jaguar Land Rover hasn’t managed to improve the reliability of its cars. 

Land Rover scored just 63% for its four-to-eight-year-old cars, with the current Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Discovery 4 among the brand’s worst offenders.

It’s bad news for Discovery 3 drivers too. The big off-road has suffered a range of faults including suspension, gearbox and exhaust system troubles. On average they set owners back a whopping £399 a year in repair bills.

Calculating reliability

Which? worked out the reliability score for each car maker by looking at the number of breakdowns and faults suffered by all models in the past 12 months, reported to the group through the annual Which? Car Survey.

The more serious the fault and the longer it kept a car off the road, the bigger weighting it was given.

The scores for each area are then combined to provide an overall reliability score for each manufacturer.

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Comments (20)

  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    The success of Skoda doesn't surprise me in the least. Even in pre-VW days when they had a poor reputation, the cars were extremely strong and reliable, the company having a very long history of fine engineering was doing amazing things with few resources. Skoda chassis engineers often outclass VW and are still somewhat restrained by fears that they could easily embarrass the parent company in terms of better quality.

    On the other hand - any survey which has the Renault Megane as a reliable vehicle has me baffled. Renaults have been, without exception, the most frustrating mix of comfort, innovation and lousy quality for the last 30 years and I have recently seen Meganes with a standard of fit and finish reminiscent of the old Ladas. I've owned Renaults and absolutely loved them, but reliable? Unbelievable !

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • chocporter
    Love rating 0
    chocporter said

    I have a Renault too. We have paid out over a thousand pounds in the past year for repairs which have mostly been to do with the computer system - it is a complete moneypit so surprised to see a Renault in the top ten!

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Mike10613
    Love rating 599
    Mike10613 said

    I went to a historic vehicle show yesterday, it was nice to see British cars from over 50 years ago. I wonder if these cars will still be around in 50 years. Would you want to actually keep one for 50 years? Most people can't afford a new car anyway. We have a recession, that appears to be affecting some people more than others. I'm sure the the sporting crowd that love the Olympics, Wimbledon, Royal Ascot and all the other jollies will want something new. The make doesn't matter. They will just need somewhere for the skis.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • delta25
    Love rating 2
    delta25 said

    The Yeti - a colleague has a Yeti which has leaked inside the roof lining ever since he's had it, no-one, it seems, has a clue how to fix it.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    Most working people can and do afford new cars and most of them are better off in this 'recession', if they have a mortgage, but whether buying new is foolish is an entirely different matter. New vehicles seem pretty cheap in terms of average wages if you look back a few years. I'm disgusted that the majority of vehicles scrapped these days are in good shape and have no serious engine or gearbox problems, but are not viable to repair because manufacturers want ridiculous money for ECU's and other electronics. It's about time that all engine control electronics were standardised and were tailored to vehicles just by software changes. Car manufacturers could and should have been forced to make available environmental upgrade packages, so that older cars could benefit from reduced road tax rates. A £1500 new engine upgrade package is perfectly feasible and would have made far more sense than the absurd scrappage scheme.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  3 loves
  • simongrenshaw@yahoo.com
    Love rating 2
    simongrenshaw@yahoo.com said

    Where do these figures come from? You hardly ever see any broken down cars at the side of the road like you did years ago. I have been running Ford Fiesta diesels for 29 years now and have only ever broken down once, and this wouldn't have happened if my garage had taken notice when I complained about a grinding gearbox which had done 100,000 miles. The manufacturers could easily make cars 100% reliable without adding to the cost but where is the profit in that, and as we have all seen if we don't make stuff over and over again there will be no jobs and the economy will go down the pan along with profits/dividends which pay for our pensions.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • sludgeguts
    Love rating 55
    sludgeguts said

    Some 40 years ago, my dad owned a skoda estate, It came as the delivery vehicle of the business he bought. despite the jokes back then, the car was extremely reliable - even as old as it was, it provided many years of faultless service. A neighbour 3 doors along also had a skoda - he swore by them, as did a farmer friend.

    A reminder of some of the jokes :-

    How do you double the value of a skoda - put in a tankful of fuel (and it was PENNIES per GALLON back then) - and affordable cars are a bad thing how?

    There was something about skodas being the same colour as a flymo - because they had the same cornering ability! As did many cars back then.

    Why do skodas have heated rear windows - to keep your hands warm when trying to start them in the cold weather. At least they HAD heated rear windows - many marques didn't! also, many skodas still came with a hand crank, so even though the battery was old & shot, the car could still be started.

    My first ever brand new car (back in the early 80s) was a nissan. I was looking at two very similar cars, one ford, the other nissan. The nissan came in at £1000 cheaper. It included a stereo radio, intermittent wash/wipe (with 6 delay settings), lights on alarm, low washer bottle light, bulb failure light, low brake pad light, seatbelt light, remote tailgate & petrol cap release & 5-speed box.

    The best Ford could offer was a radio for an extra £50.

    The consumption figures were also better for the nissan, despite the vehicles being very similar.

    I also negotiated a set of tailored car mats plus half a tank of fuel with the nissan.

    I would be interested to see what the stats for these cars are regarding servicing. Are the most reliable going strong because service prices are reasonable? I imagine many people owning a new landy will change them regularly & certainly have the money to afford the service & many picking up a second-hand landy will balk at the service price - hence why they go wrong more often.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • MK22
    Love rating 142
    MK22 said

    I would love to know how these statistics are made up.

    For instance, are the Warranty Direct figures taken as a % failure rate versus of number of cars registered with Warranty Direct? In which case could be an irrelevant statistic. Which? figures and for instance JD power, are usually based on respondents to their surveys, so not necessarily a reliable guide! Do, for instance, XXX Rover owners report any fault just so people will think they are unreliable and so not buy them, thus helping the exclusivity of the brand? Not impossible, after all when was the last time you saw any form of Land Rover broken down? My previous C-Max broke down once and was off the road for a day. Does that make it 0% reliable (all C-Maxs I'd owned at the time had broken down); or 99.93% (time unavailable versus time of ownership); or 100% reliable (because I wasn't inconvenienced by the failure)?

    Perhaps someone needs to do a project tapping into the manufacturers' computer data and so get a better picture (still not perfect due to the use of non-franchised repairers and DIY).

    And what about time off the road (even for routine servicing) and cost of parts/labour/servicing? And anyway, is reliability relevant any more with "road side assistance" readily available?

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • LandOfConfusion
    Love rating 64
    LandOfConfusion said

    I have to agree with some of the above comments. I do work on my own car and from experience French cars seem to be dogged with electrical problems with Renaults in particular also having issues with their mechanics.

    On the other hand Japanese cars tend to be very reliable, although that's probably because of the short service intervals and quality (but expensive) parts.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • OorWullie
    Love rating 38
    OorWullie said

    I have had a number of cars over the years and modern cars are much more reliable. In the past 20 years I have had 2 Honda Accord automatics and more lately an old 1999 BMW 528i automatic with originally 82000 miles on the clock but now about to turn over to 100,000. The Hondas I liked and they were reliable but maintenance was costly and at the 80,000 mark both Hondas started burning oil. The BMW is a superb car, reliable, comfortable, and not nearly as costly as the Hondas were to maintain yet the engine sounds as if it will provide another 100,000 miles without burning oil. Probably due to the age of the BMW the main dealer always deducts 25% from my bills which is something that the Honda dealer never did. Okay, consumption wise the BMW is thirsty but it gives a lovely comfortable ride when on the motorway at 30 mpg; a great car. Today, those BMW 5 series can be purchased for around £1000; a gift not to be missed!

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • CuNNaXXa
    Love rating 362
    CuNNaXXa said

    The last time I broke down was back in 1990, in a Ford Sierra. The ignition module died just outside of Bournemouth, on the A338.

    Rang up the RAC, who came out within two hours. They couldn't tow me back to Gosport as it was too far, so he ordered a Relay truck to take me.

    Eight hours later, a Relay truck finally turned up. You will never guess. He had a replacement ignition module for my Sierra sitting in his toolbox.

    So, after ten hours of waiting, my motor was repaired and I was able to continue my journey.

    Anyway, since those days, ignition modules now have a 'get you home' mode, or a 'limp home' mode, so that breakdowns due to faulty electrics or dying electronics are more rare.

    In fact, you will find that most modern are able to limp home because the electronics are much more sophisticated than those of twenty or thirty years back, meaning there are far fewer actual breakdowns. Breakdowns are more than likely mechanical, such as something snapping, cracking or tearing, than electrical (or running out of fuel).

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • MouthyRob
    Love rating 14
    MouthyRob said

    This article is silly. Obviously range rovers have more suspension issues than skodas as I am pretty sure they spend more time off road. Similarly, people who drive 3 series bmws are likely to drive more aggressively than citroen c1 owners, making them require more maintenance.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • nickpike
    Love rating 270
    nickpike said

    Citroën?

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • Delphi
    Love rating 2
    Delphi said

    Or it could be amended to read in the subtitle:

    ... Two surveys point to British made vehicles as the most reliable ...

    ... because your list includes these four British made models:

    Honda CRV built Swindon

    Honda Jazz Swindon

    Toyota Auris Hybrid Derby

    Nissan Note Sunderland

    Also in your list were 2 French, 2 German and one Japanese and one Czech car.

    Hands down win for the Brits it seems, but some readers may not have noticed that from the way the above article is scripted.

    Celebrate the current roaring success of the British motor industry. Why not?

    PS We export 80% of UK car production, about 500,000 cars through Southampton alone every year.

    We must be doing something right.

    We are. We build attractive, stylish capable and reliable cars that the world wants to buy! We get more like the Germans used to be everyday.

    AND we are a darn sight more successful at car manufacture these days than the French, for instance.

    Report on 30 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  1 love
  • Klawman
    Love rating 17
    Klawman said

    This sort of survey by model really IS silly. There is no measure of statistical or sampling error, resulting in so many anomalies as to render this virtually meaningless.

    For example:

    - Skoda make more than one model of car. Yet only the Yeti (pun not intended) is in the Top10. Why should the Yeti by so much more reliable that (say) an Octavia or a Fabia?

    - A BMW 1-series Coupe is mechanically identical to the hatchback. So why is the Coupe in the list and not the hatchback?

    It also takes no account of other variables which are known to influence the results. For example

    - Land Rovers are more complex mechanically and electronically than Skoda Yetis. The more complexity, the higher the chances of something going wrong.

    Also, as pointed out, many would have been used off-road. Is it any wonder they have more problems with suspensions and exhausts?

    - Surveys which rely on customer perceptions are untrustworthy as absolute indicators, for the simple reason that owner expectations vary according to the brand and model. Someone who drives a prestige or aspirational brand will have far higher expectations that someone who buys a budget brand. This is a well known survey bias.

    Thus a minor fault which might be excused on a Yeti is likely to be found unacceptable by the owner of a Range Rover Sport.

    Report on 31 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • LandOfConfusion
    Love rating 64
    LandOfConfusion said

    OorWullie,

    Your experiences are somewhat different to my own.

    In my experience BMW's & Merc's are nearly always more expensive to service than 'ordinary' cars. For example, both my Citroen and my brother's Kia cost about £100 to service whereas my line manager's BMW costs £450.

    And the parts are astronomical too. For example an ignition coil (or 'module') for my car would cost me £26 delivered. For my manager's BMW add £100 to that.

    I'm also surprised that your Hondas started burning oil. In my experience this is very unusual in a properly serviced Japanese car. In fact out of all the Jap' cars I've ever known one one has ever broken down - and even then that was because it wasn't serviced for a long time.

    Report on 31 July 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • CuNNaXXa
    Love rating 362
    CuNNaXXa said

    As Delphi has stated, there are plenty of foreign manufacturers who have based their European operations within our country.

    In fact, the company I work for act as agents for Denyo. Then again, we export to Australia, so what comes in to this country also goes out. Imports and Exports.

    As with all statistics, they can be massaged to show whatever you want them to show. A statistician is just another name for an accountant, who is someone who can make 2 + 2 equal whatever you want it to equal.

    Report on 01 August 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • ronat42
    Love rating 62
    ronat42 said

    A quick scan seems to suggest that the reliability is inversely proportional to the cost/and complexity of the vehicle. In every car that I've had over the past 40 years the bits that have failed have always been the "don't really need it" bits or the "far more complicated than necessary" ones and those are also the most expensive to repair bits. I also have a theory that the people who must have all of the Gizmos are also the ones who are likely to have the most trouble but these are things that are difficult to put into a survey.

    Perhaps we should get a different perspective on this if we compared severity of problems rather than simple numerical values.

    Report on 04 August 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • oldhenry
    Love rating 265
    oldhenry said

    Land Rovers are not reliable because they are not built by the Japanese, or Koreans. The standard of care in a build is everything. LR owners seem not to bother whether they will get them home or not, bizarre.

    Not all Germans stuff is wondeful. My Transported van's , as a camper, engine expired at 100,000 miles which I though pathetic. Transit engines doing two ot three times that.

    The body was better than Ford , but rusted out round the windows as a design fault trapped water. Cars are built to a price, Ford seem to be middle of the road, but ignore their daft list prices that no one pays.

    I now have a Ford and a Kia , the latter with a 7 year warranty . I hope I never need it though. The last time I broke down at side of road was in the VW camper when the electrical water pump, a back up to the main one as it was a turbo, leaked and lost the coolant, realyed home and I ordered a new one at £140! Easy to fit though, as was a turbo at 140,000 miles.

    Report on 04 August 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves
  • electricblue
    Love rating 643
    electricblue said

    @oldhenry

    Rolls Royce aero engines are not made by the Japanese or Koreans and are the best in the world so your comment is a direct insult to the quality of British manufacturing which is now well up to any Japanese standards. The current build quality of Jaguar Land Rover is stunning by comparison with any quality car manufacturer building highly complex vehicles and UK Toyota and Nissan plants ship top end models to Japan where they are regarded as premium quality. Volkswagen reliability is all hype, the cars may not leave you stranded but numerous replacements of 'wearing' parts will empty your wallet

    Report on 05 August 2012  |  Love thisLove  0 loves

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