It’s one of the sad realities of car ownership that, at some point or another, our beloved vehicles may break down. Whether it’s suspension bushes, gaskets, wheel bearings, driveshafts, or air filter, at some point our cars are going to need something replacing.
Manufacturers obviously hope that isn’t an inevitability as they aim to make their cars as long lasting as possible. And if something does break, drivers can all but hope the replacement parts won’t be supercar expensive.
However, how do you work out which is the most reliable car on sale? Data is the obvious answer, but which data? To that end, the motoring publication WhatCar? conducted a survey in association with MotorEasy to find out from owners which were the most reliable cars in the UK.
The way they came to the winners and losers was through a survey of 32,493 owners of cars in the UK that were up to five years old, with the data covering 30 brands and 227 different models.
For the survey, owners were asked if their car had had any faults within the previous 24 months. From this, those cars that had gone wrong were subsequently rated on how much the repairs cost and how long they took; the overall score was then expressed as a percentage.
Following the calculations, it was discovered that the most reliable car in the UK was a tie between four models, but this wasn’t the only major discovery. Whilst Hyundai had two models in the top ten, Toyota went one better and had three.
The Toyota RAV4 SUV came seventh, the Toyota Aygo X city car came fifth, but the homologation special Toyota GR Yaris came joint first. It, alongside the Hyundai i10, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia EV3, had a perfect score of 100%.
This isn’t the first time Toyota’s recently released cars have been praised, with the Toyota Aygo X coming first in WhatCar’s 2024 Reliability Survey. In recent years, Toyota has made waves in the automotive industry, not just for its reliable cars, but the variety of models it produces.
The automotive giant builds everything from city cars to Le Mans prototypes, from family friendly SUVs, estates, and MPVs to Dakar trucks, world rally cars, and hydrogen powered saloons.
Speaking about this year’s results, WhatCar?’s consumer editor Claire Evans said: “One in four cars aged up to five years old went wrong, and although most were fixed by the car makers, when they didn’t step up and do this, it left some owners with eye-watering bills.
“Buying brand new isn’t a guarantee you’ll get a reliable car, as the Tiguan shows, and there can be big differences in dependability between models from the same brand, so it’s vital to check the What Car? Reliability Survey findings for any model you’re considering buying.”
- Hyundai i10 (2020-present) – 100% reliability rating
- Hyundai Santa Fe (2018-2024) – 100% reliability rating
- Kia EV3 (2024-present) – 100% reliability rating
- Toyota GR Yaris (2020-present) – 100% reliability rating
- Toyota Aygo X (2021-present) – 99.7% reliability rating
- Vauxhall Grandland petrol (2024-present) – 99.6% reliability rating
- Toyota RAV4 (2019-present) – 99.2% reliability rating
- Mini Hatchback (2014-2024) – 99.1% reliability rating
- Volkswagen T-Roc (2018-2025) – 99% reliability rating
- Porsche Macan (2014-present) – 99% reliability rating
