About our car reliability survey
Our car survey was conducted during November and December 2025.
We asked vehicle owners to tell us about any faults their vehicles have experienced. We also asked them how satisfied they are with their car and specific aspects of its performance and design.
We only analyse makes and models that get more than 30 responses in our survey. We received data on 5,791 vehicles.
We use a statistical test to rate each car model relative to the other models in our survey with Highest, High, Average, Low or Lowest for reliability and satisfaction respectively.
We rate each car make in the same way. See which car brands are most reliable.
Model reliability
Survey respondents told us what faults their vehicles have experienced in the past year. We asked whether the faults were serious, major or minor.
Serious faults are likely to cause a breakdown, take a car out of service for more than a few days and be expensive to repair.
Major faults could cause breakdowns or result in significant repair costs and time off the road.
Minor faults are less critical, but may still need repair or affect owner satisfaction.
Trouble-free vehicles had no faults of any kind reported in our survey.
We publish the percentage of each of these fault types for each vehicle model.
The proportion of faults reported helps determine the car model's reliability rating relative to other vehicle models. We give more weight to serious faults and less to minor ones.
We also account for vehicle age – that is, whether a model has better or worse reliability than you’d expect for the age of the vehicles in its sample. This means models with older cars aren’t penalised unfairly.
Model satisfaction
To determine a model's satisfaction rating relative to other vehicle models in our survey, we asked owners to indicate how satisfied they are with their vehicle overall.
We also asked how satisfied they are with specific aspects of their vehicle:
fuel efficiency
driving performance
safety features
practicality/size
interior design
comfort
technology and infotainment
maintenance and repairs
value for money.
And for EVs and PHEVs:
battery life
range
charging experience.
For each of these aspects, a rating of High indicates more very satisfied owners than other models, Average indicates a similar number and Low indicates fewer very satisfied owners.
In addition, we asked how likely the owner is to recommend their vehicle model to family and friends. We publish the percentage of owners in our survey who answered "very likely".
Tips for using our survey data
Take care when using reliability data for newer models to the market. Models that have only been available for the past few years and have a lower average odometer reading are likely to be rated amongst the highest for reliability.
The current reliability rating doesn’t necessarily indicate how well or how badly a model will age.
Check out the brand’s overall reliability rating. It’s unlikely that a brand with a history of poor reliability will suddenly create a model that's a reliability superstar (but you never know).
Not all models from a brand have equal reliability. Our data shows trends and statistically significant results from a sample of nearly 6,000 vehicles. Even among the best-rated brands and models, there’ll always be examples of vehicles with problems.
