Britain's most reliable cars in 2024

We asked 30,000 drivers what their car is really like to own. Here are the most reliable cars you can buy...

Claire Evans

Published11 December 2024

Britain's most reliable cars 2024 (plus the ones that'll let you down)

Red Porsche 718 Boxster front right driving

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Reliability is one of the key concerns of anyone who is choosing their next car. After all, nobody relishes the time, inconvenience and potential expense of a car breaking down and requiring repair.

But how do you really know whether a car is likely to be a faithful friend, or a frustrating foe?

In the most recent What Car? reliability survey, conducted in association with MotorEasy, a massive 29,967 motorists responded to tell us which are Britain's most reliable cars.

As well as telling us if their cars had suffered any faults over the last 12 months, they also told us how much each issue cost to fix and how long it kept their cars off the road. Cost and inconvenience are the two biggest headaches of dealing with a faulty car, so we used responses on these issues to create a unique reliability rating for each car and brand.

As well as rating each car for the cost of faults and time off the road, we also asked owners to tell us which area of their car was affected by the problem. This means we can tell you the kind of faults encountered by each model, helping you to make an informed decision.

Our data is fully independent, gathered from real car owners and the experiences they've had with their cars, while some other reliability reports simply quote data from aftermarket warranty providers.

We've split our results into different car and SUV categories, with a page dedicated to each one. So, if, for example, you want to find out the most reliable electric car, you can use our most reliable electric cars. Or if you're curious to know what the least reliable small SUV is, we have a page for that car class, too.

We only focus on cars up to five years old because that covers the minimum three-year new car warranty as well as another two years where faults are less likely to be fixed for free.