25 most reliable cars

Everyone is feeling the pinch right now, so unexpected car repair bills are the last thing we need. Buying a new car should reduce the risk of costly issues, but it doesn't guarantee your car will be fault free.

In fact, 21% of the cars reported on in our latest What Car? Reliability Survey went wrong, and although 83% of problems were fixed for free, 17% of owners had to pay for repair work, and some paid more than £1500 per fault. 

Fortunately, the survey – carried out in association with MotorEasy – can help you choose a dependable model that also matches your needs.

We gathered real-life information from 24,927 owners of 248 different models. They spilled the beans on their cars, telling us whether they had suffered any faults in the past two years, and, if so, how long the car was off the road and how much the repairs cost.

We've used the data to create a unique reliability rating for each model, enabling us to rank them and reveal the best and worst contenders. 

Here we reveal the 25 most reliable cars aged up to five years old.