What Car? magazine say: "This year's What Car? Reliability Survey is one of the biggest car polls in the country, gathering feedback from 39,332 owners over the past two years. The survey provides insight into 225 models from 30 brands across 16 fault categories. It asks owners in detail about everything from the number and nature of faults to the cost of repairs and the time the repairs took."
Interesting to see that the Chinese Jaecoo 7 (2024-present) might be topping the 2026 UK car sales charts, but its reliability record isn't as shiny as its sales figures, finishing at 6th in the 'Most Unreliable Car' list, rated by its owners at 71.9 per cent...
Meanwhile it looks like good news for the MINI Hatchback (2014-2024) which came in 5th in the 'Most Reliable Car' survey with a 99.4 per cent reliability rating given by its owners. Just 4 per cent of Mini hatchbacks had a problem, and these problems were to do with non-engine electrical issues or steering problems. All of the cars could still be driven, though, and all were fixed for free.
Also good to see the MINI Countryman (2024-present) topping the 'What Car? Most Reliable Cars 2026' survey with a 100 per cent reliability rating. Every owner who reported on their MINI Countryman said it had suffered no faults. Owner's comment: 'It’s the best car I’ve ever had. It has been simply faultless in terms of reliability. The Suzuki Swift (2017-2024), was the only other car that gained a perfect rating in the What Car? reliability survey.
More What Car? Annual Survey Results here:-
https://www.whatcar....ble-cars/n27337
What Car? - What are the most reliable cars and brands?
"After seven years of being a bridesmaid, Suzuki has returned to the top of our league table. Its rating signifies that almost all of the cars its owners told us about have an exemplary reliability record. The best of them was the previous-generation Swift, one of only two models to gain a perfect score this year, while the Vitara wasn’t far behind.
Honda and Mini, in second and third places respectively, are both previous winners and still look like extremely strong choices for anyone who is after a car that won’t let them down. Four Honda models scored 95% or more: the current Civic, HR-V, Jazz and ZR-V. The current Mini Countryman was the second model to achieve a 100% rating, and the 2014-2024 Mini hatchback was just behind it (99.4%).
Normally dependable Lexus and Toyota are out of the top 10 this year, because many of their models have suffered battery problems. BMW has sunk down, too, due to a combination of slow repairs, lots of electrical issues and some costly bills.
The brand that has improved the most is MG, which has implemented big changes to improve wait times and the cost of repairs for its customers.
There are a couple of VW Group brands near the bottom of the chart, dragged down mainly by electrical issues that have been slow and sometimes costly to sort out. Volkswagen’s score was dented by ongoing issues with the Tiguan, the lowest-scoring model in the survey, while Audi was hit by the performances of the current A3 and previous-generation Q5.
That leaves Land Rover as the least reliable brand in this year’s survey. Although the Range Rover Sport and Range Rover scored well, this was offset by very poor performances by the Discovery Sport and Evoque. We’d advise you to choose carefully if you want a dependable Land Rover."
What Car? - Are petrol, diesel, electric or hybrid cars most reliable?
"Despite the growing popularity of electric vehicles, it’s a petrol model you should go for if you want a car that’s least likely to develop a fault and leave you stranded at the roadside.
Our data shows that only 20% of petrol models were afflicted by faults. In contrast, 32% of diesel models let their owners down, making them the least dependable fuel type. Electric models weren’t far ahead of diesels for the frequency of faults, because 27% went wrong, while hybrids looked more promising with a 23% fault rate.
Petrol cars were also the least likely to spend a long time off the road; 34% of those that went wrong were fixed in a day or less and 39% took more than a week to rectify.
Diesel models spent only a little longer in the workshop on average – 40% were out of action for more than seven days – but they were the least likely to be fixed for free. Car makers took care of bills for 74% of diesel car owners, compared with 88% for electric cars. However, the latter took the longest to fix on average, with 47% of those that went wrong out of action for more than a week."
Edited by mab01uk, Today, 07:00 PM.
