Top 10 Most Asked About Car Manufacturers for Reliability

30th April 2024

When it comes to buying a new or used car, reliability is a top priority for a lot of buyers. With the current cost of living crisis, it’s important to research common issues with particular makes and models before buying a car. This includes understanding how reliable a car has been for other owners to give you an idea of ownership costs. Unreliable cars can lead to costly repair works and unexpected breakdowns.

A study by Hippo Leasing looked at 10,000 questions on Quora about car manufacturers and found the top 10 most asked about brands for reliability, ordered by number of inquiries.

Toyota - 1650
Lexus - 1636
BMW - 1540
Honda - 1386
Audi - 1291
Hyundai - 1164
Subaru - 910
Mercedes - 809
Volvo - 802
Land Rover - 799

Toyota topped the list with 1650 inquiries, followed by Lexus with 1636. Mercedes, Volvo and Land Rover ranked closely with 809, 802 and 799 reliability queries respectively.

To answer how reliable these brands really are, MotorEasy’s Reliability Index provides a good insight. The index is an ongoing study which covers 274 models across 44 car manufacturers, aggregating 150,000 years’ worth of vehicles under warranty cover. The data primarily focuses on cars that are 3 to 12 years old.

MotorEasy’s Reliability Index assesses long-term vehicle repair costs once a car’s manufacturer warranty has expired. For many motorists this is when a car’s reliability is the most important as any repair bills or time when the car isn’t roadworthy will cost the owner. Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed that in 2023 used car sales grew by 5.1% on the previous year, totalling 7,242,692 used cars that found new owners.

According to MotorEasy’s Reliability Index Toyota was the most reliable brand of the top 10 most asked about manufacturers, with a score of 8.3 out of 10. This was followed by Honda with 8.2 and Lexus with 8 out of 10. Hyundai and Volvo took joint fourth place with a respectable rating of 6.5. After this, Mercedes-Benz came in with 5.1 out of 10 and BMW scored 3.5. Next was Audi with 3.1 and Subaru at 2.8. Rounding out the most asked about car manufacturers was Land Rover with a rating of 1 out of 10.

While Subaru was amongst the lowest of the bunch, it was also the manufacturer with the least amount of collective years under MotorEasy warranty cover. With a larger data pool the results could have shown better reliability figures. The manufacturers with the highest number of years to pull from were BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Land Rover so the reliability scores for these brands are much more likely to accurately forecast an owner’s experience of these brands.

However, even if the reliability scores for some of the manufacturers aren’t brilliant, that doesn’t mean the brand doesn’t have reliable models. As well as looking at reliability for each brand, MotorEasy’s Reliability Index takes a further look at specific model reliability.

Toyota’s most reliable model was the Land Cruiser with a rating of 8.2, topping our list alongside Hyundai’s IX20. Next up was Volvo’s S90 which received an individual model reliability ranking of 8.1. The Lexus GS and Honda Accord both promised the same level of reliability at 8 out of 10 and BMW’s Z Series which includes the Z3 and Z4 convertible sports cars closely followed at 7.9. Audi’s most reliable model was the Q2 at 7.7 and Mercedes GLA beat the reliability of the brand as a whole at 7.3. Land Rover brings up the bottom of the table with its Defender posting a 6.3 out of 10, again proving to be much more reliable than all Land Rover models collectively.

During 2023 the most popular used cars sold in the UK according to the SMMT were the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Mini, BMW 3 Series, Volkswagen Polo, Nissan Qashqai and Audi A3.

Here’s how the top 10 used models sold in the UK in 2023 rank on MotorEasy’s Reliability Index: