Back to GuidesEach year, people buy thousands of new and used cars. Most do not just buy any vehicle, though. A key factor that influences car buyers is reliability ratings. For that, many turn to J.D. Power, Consumer Reports, and other sources to research reports on the most reliable vehicles and the most reliable car brands. These reports help inform buyers about the choices they have.
Companies get real owner feedback, research reliable models, and use repair data to produce their own reliability scores, but all use their data slightly differently to produce results. You can check out our list of the most reliable vehicles by clicking here, but for now, we are going to take a step back and dive further into the most reliable brands.
The Most Reliable Brands:
Toyota:
Toyota is consistently ranked higher than most brands across each reliability list. Their spot as the most reliable brand for CR, and RepairPal, as well as their fifth-place finish for J.D. Power is a testament to the brand’s quality. All of these factors help them win the top spot in our reliability list.
Lexus:
Just about everything that can be said of Toyota can be said of Lexus as well. Lexus typically ranks only one or two spots behind Toyota on each reliability list. The Lexus GX and several other individual models’ strong showing strengthen the brand as a whole.
Kia:
Kia is highly rated because of their number-one ranking for J.D. Power, top-ten finish in CR’s reliability ratings, and their low cost of repairs in RepairPal’s rankings. Even if they were rated lower, their excellent warranty would provide buyers with a little extra piece of mind that their issues would be covered.
Honda:
Honda’s top ranking for RepairPal and their top-five rating for Consumer Reports land them at number four on our list. According to RepairPal, they are typically inexpensive to fix when things break unexpectedly which is a good thing since J.D. Power rated them fairly low in their reliability rankings.
Buick:
Buick is the only domestic manufacturer in our top ten and is consistently the most reliable domestic automaker in other reliability ratings lists. The Encore and Envision help keep the brand among the top half of each other list, despite their slipping out of CR’s ten most reliable brands. J.D. Power keeps them at second overall.
Mazda:
Mazda is our sixth most reliable brand based on its top-ten showing for Consumer Reports and RepairPal. J.D. Power ranks them at twelfth out of twenty-four brands which is still better than half the field. The outstanding individual performance of the Mazda MX-5 Miata and CX-5 midsize crossover helps the brand the most.
Hyundai:
Similarly to Kia, Hyundai ranks high for J.D. Power. They remain in the top ten for RepairPal because of their low expense to fix issues, and they have just fallen out of the top ten for Consumer Reports. Still, their 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty should help Hyundai loyalists remain at ease if they have issues.
Genesis:
Genesis has made leaps and bounds forward for CR’s rankings this year, despite not having a presence for previous RepairPal ratings. They also perform well in J.D. Power’s rankings, solidifying their spot as our eighth most reliable brand. We will have to monitor RepairPal in the coming years to see how they perform when it comes to long-term maintenance bills.
Acura:
Acura performs well in RepairPal’s data, and they retain a spot in CR’s top ten. They land at number nine here because they rank quite low for J.D. Power.
BMW:
Despite not having a place in the RepairPal top twenty, BMW ranks third for Consumer Reports and fifteenth for J.D. Power. BMWs are known to require costly repairs if they do have issues, which is what ultimately keeps them low on RepairPal’s list of reliable brands.
J.D. Power Most Reliable Car Brands for 2022-2023
There are two main areas within the J.D. Power data that are used to assess overall reliability scores.
J.D. Power Quality Award:
Below is a comprehensive list of all the most recent 2022 J.D. Power Quality Award winners:
Brands:
Non-Premium Brand: Buick
Premium Brand: Genesis
Small Vehicles:
Small SUV: 2022 Buick Encore GX
Small Premium Car: 2022 BMW 2-Series
Small Car: 2022 Hyundai Accent
Small Premium SUV: 2022 BMW X1
Compact Vehicles:
Compact Sporty Car: 2022 MINI Hardtop 2-Door
Compact SUV: 2022 Chevrolet Equinox
Compact Premium SUV: 2022 BMW X3
Compact Car: 2022 Kia Forte
Compact Premium Car: 2022 Lexus IS
Midsize Vehicles:
Midsize Car: 2022 Chevrolet Malibu
Upper Midsize Premium SUV: 2022 Cadillac XT6
Midsize SUV: 2022 Nissan Murano
Premium Sporty Car: 2022 Chevrolet Corvette
Midsize Premium SUV: 2022 Lincoln Nautilus
Upper Midsize Premium Car: 2022 Genesis G80
Midsize Pickup: 2022 Ford Ranger
Large Vehicles:
Minivan: 2022 Honda Odyssey
Large Premium Car: 2022 BMW 7-Series
Large Heavy-Duty Pickup: 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD
Lage Light-Duty Pickup: 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTD
Large SUV: 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe
Large Premium SUV: Cadillac Escalade
For 2022, J.D. Power has awarded both Buick and Genesis their quality award. This award goes to the top non-premium and premium brand with the fewest problems reported per 100 car owners within the first 90 days of vehicle ownership.
J.D. Power quality awards are not just given to brands. They go to individual models as well. Surprisingly, only one Genesis vehicle earned a quality award for the year despite the brand’s overall performance. The 2022 Genesis G80 earns the top spot among midsize luxury cars. Buick also has one model crowned the overall winner in the subcompact SUV segment: the Buick Encore GX.
Several BMW and Chevrolet models earn top spots in their respective categories. The BMW 2-Series and X1 earn J.D. Power’s quality award for the small luxury segment, the BMW X3 wins the compact luxury SUV segment, and the 7-Series takes the crown over other large luxury cars.
The 2022 Chevrolet Equinox earns the award in the compact SUV segment, the Chevy Malibu beats out other midsize cars, the Chevy Tahoe wins the award for the large SUV segment, and both the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and 2500 HD win the award for light-duty and heavy-duty pickup trucks respectively. The new Corvette takes down the premium sports car segment.
Cadillac also makes a good showing with the Escalade winning the large luxury SUV category and the XT6 winning the luxury midsize SUV segment.
Other individual model winners include the 2022 Hyundai Accent, 2022 Mini Cooper hardtop, 2022 Kia Forte, 2022 Lexus IS, 2022 Nissan Murano, 2022 Lincoln Nautilus, 2022 Ford Ranger, and 2022 Honda Odyssey.
J.D. Power Dependability Award
Below is a comprehensive list of all the most recent 2022 J.D. Power Dependability Award winners:
Brands:
Non-Premium Brand: Kia
Premium Brand: Genesis:
Small Vehicles:
Small SUV: 2019 Buick Encore
Small Premium SUV: 2019 Lexus UX
Compact Vehicles:
Compact SUV: 2019 Buick Envision
Compact Premium Car: 2019 BMW 4-Series
Compact Car: 2019 Toyota Corolla
Compact Premium SUV: 2019 Lexus NX
Compact Sporty Car: 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata
Midsize Vehicles:
Midsize Sporty Car: 2019 Ford Mustang
Midsize Pickup: 2019 Nissan Frontier
Midsize SUV: 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe
Midsize Premium Sporty Car: 2019 Porsche 911
Midsize Premium SUV: 2019 Lexus RX
Midsize Car: 2019 Hyundai Sonata
Large Vehicles:
Large Car: 2019 Chevrolet Impala
Large Heavy-Duty Pickup: 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD
Large Light-Duty Pickup: 2019 Toyota Tundra
Large SUV: 2019 Chevrolet Suburban
Minivan: 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan
J.D. Power gives its dependability award to both Genesis and Kia for 2022. This award goes to one premium and one non-premium brand that has the fewest problems reported per 100 car owners over the preceding 12 months of ownership of a three-year-old vehicle.
Similar to their quality award, J.D. Power’s dependability awards are broken up further by individual models within several common segments.
Despite Genesis and Kia winning awards for dependability as a brand, there are no individual models representing the Korean automakers in J.D. Power’s dependable model awards. The closest vehicles include the 2019 Hyundai Sonata in the midsize car class and the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe in the midsize SUV class.
Lexus makes a fantastic showing with the 2019 Lexus UX, 2019 Lexus NX, and 2019 Lexus RX earning the award for the subcompact, compact, and midsize luxury SUV classes respectively. Chevrolet also has three winners, all in large model segments. The 2019 Impala, 2019 Silverado 2500HD, and 2019 Suburban come away with a dependability award.
Toyota and Buick each have two winners in their respective segments. The 2019 Buick Encore beats out other small crossover SUVs while the 2019 Buick Envision takes down the compact SUV competition. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 2019 Toyota Corolla and 2019 Toyota Tundra win the award over other compact cars and light-duty pickup trucks.
BMW makes less of a showing for dependability with only the 2019 4-Series taking the win in the compact luxury car segment. Other outliers include the 2019 Nissan Frontier in the midsize pickup truck class and the 2019 Dodge Grand Caravan in the minivan class.
If you are looking for a dependable sports car, look no further than the compact, midsize, and luxury sporty car award winners: The 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata, the 2019 Ford Mustang, and the 2019 Porsche 911.
Consumer Reports Most Reliable Car Brands for 2022-2023
Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings are a little more straightforward than J.D. Power’s. Each year, they update their list of the most reliable car brands based on predicted reliability ratings. With this list, we begin to get a peak into 2023 as several models are included in CR’s most recent update.
- Toyota
- Lexus
- BMW
- Mazda
- Honda
- Audi
- Subaru
- Acura
- Kia
- Lincoln
- Buick
- Genesis
- Hyundai
- Volvo
- Nissan
- RAM
- Cadillac
- Ford
- Tesla
- Chevy
- GMC
- Volkswagen
- Jeep
- Mercedes-Benz
According to Consumer Reports, they have excluded Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini, Mitsubishi, Polestar, Porsche, and Rivian from their most recent reliable brands list because of insufficient data or too few models from which to choose.
The Cream of The Crop:
Japanese automakers highlight the top five most reliable brands with Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, and Honda coming in first, second, fourth, and fifth respectively. Despite Mazda, falling two spots from its previous second-place ranking, they remain a reliable brand overall.
Lexus and Honda have remained nearly unchanged while Toyota has officially overtaken Lexus’ previous top spot. Still, both Lexus and Toyota have the same overall average predicted reliability scores. The biggest surprise of the bunch is BMW. The automaker jumped up ten places to kick Buick out of the top five.
The rest of the top ten contains a couple of familiar brands and a few surprises. Subaru and Acura remain among the top ten reliable brands, only falling one spot each to seventh and eighth in CR’s rankings.
Audi jumps to sixth place from their previous spot just outside the top ten. Kia jumps six places into the ninth spot. Lincoln is the biggest mover on the list. They move fourteen spots up from their previous position, just cracking the top ten.
The Middle of The Road:
Despite their fall from grace, Buick is the eleventh most reliable brand according to Consumer Reports. This keeps them well above other manufacturers in terms of reliability, so their fall is not overly alarming. They are also only one of two domestic brands that fall in the top half of CR’s reliability rankings.
Genesis and its parent company, Hyundai, fill in the twelfth and thirteenth spots respectively. Both have made substantial moves from their previous positions, though not in the same direction. Genesis is up an impressive nine spots while Hyundai has fallen out of the top ten. Nissan has also fallen out of the top ten, moving to the fifteenth spot on CR’s list.
Volvo, RAM, Cadillac, and Ford have all made moves, but all have stayed out of contention for the least reliable brands. Volvo has moved up from their previous sixteenth spot to overtake Nissan for fourteenth while RAM has only moved one spot to up sixteenth.
Cadillac has fallen five spots to seventeenth, and Ford has moved down to eighteenth, narrowly avoiding CR’s list of below-average reliability rankings.
Tesla has moved up four spots from its previous ranking into nineteenth place, but its average reliability scores remain below average. They are the only brand to rank above the top twenty to also have overall below-average reliability. Despite this, Teslas offer some of the best cars for owner satisfaction.
The Ones to Avoid:
Chevrolet, GMC, Volkswagen, Jeep, and Mercedes-Benz are rated as the least reliable brands by Consumer Reports. They fill spots twenty through twenty-four respectively, and each model has dropped at least one spot from its previous ranking.
Jeep, Volkswagen, GMC, and Mercedes-Benz have remained fairly consistent. Jeep has only dropped one spot, Volkswagen has dropped two, and GMC has dropped three. Mercedes-Benz has dropped five spots into last place, but they have remained among the below-average reliability mark.
Chevrolet joins Lincoln and BMW as one of the three biggest movers on the list, though they have done so in the opposite direction. They have moved down ten slots in CR’s rankings.
RepairPal Most Reliable Car Brands for 2022-2023:
Similar to how J.D. Power ranks vehicle dependability, RepairPal utilizes data from years past, analyzing millions of reported repairs over time. Their reports are more helpful for used car buyers, but the information can be useful when combined with J.D. Power and Consumer Reports.
They have also found that Asian automakers dominate the automotive marketplace with reliable brands. Toyota once again wins the top spot with Honda, Kia, Lexus, and Acura completing the rest of the top five. Popular and reliable models like the Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Sienna, Honda Civic, Kia Telluride, Lexus RX350, and Acura RDX help pave their respective brands’ way to the top.
Buick, Hyundai, and Mazda are three more familiar brands that help fill in RepairPal’s remaining top ten most reliable models. They have found that Fiat slots into sixth place. This is most likely due to the fact that Fiat had a larger presence in the market in 2020. Mitsubishi comes in seventh. They rank reasonably well for J.D. Power at fourteenth but are unranked by CR for 2022 and 2023.
Nissan and Infiniti are neck-and-neck at the tenth and eleventh places. Chrysler, unranked by Consumer Reports, comes in at number twelve. Chevrolet makes up a little ground from Consumer Reports’ less-than-stellar ranking with a fourteenth-place finish. Lincoln remains fairly consistent across all three lists with a middle-of-the-road fifteenth-place finish.
The lowest RepairPal rankings come from Dodge, Subaru, SMART, Ford, and Jeep. SMART is unranked by J.D. Power and CR due to their dwindling popularity at current. Dodge, Jeep, and Ford rank consistently with Consumer Reports’ reliability results, even though J.D. Power ranks each of these brands higher. Subaru is the surprise of the bunch with a relatively low ranking here.
Where Does Reliability Data Come From?
J.D. Power has two main metrics that they use to measure reliability. For their initial quality ratings, they receive data from new car owners who have owned their vehicles for at least 90 days. From there, the owners report issues they have experienced. The brands and vehicles with the fewest reported issues are rated higher.
Dependability scores are based on more than 80,000 verified vehicle owners’ reports of problems with their vehicles. This data is gathered annually on vehicles that are three years old, and the owners report problems they have experienced during the preceding 12-month ownership period. Higher scores mean fewer reported problems.
Consumer Reports also uses data gathered from vehicle owners. In 2022, Consumer Reports surveyed its members concerning the more than 300,000 vehicles they own. CR then documents the problems they have experienced over the past year.
From this data, Consumer Reports can piece together their reliability scores. Their predicted reliability scores come from considering past trouble areas and various pieces of technology that will be handed down to the next model year of each vehicle. By assessing past, present, and future technology, they can reasonably predict if a new car will potentially have major issues.
Outlets like RepairPal also put together reliability reports. Even though they are not as well known or as heavily considered as J.D. Power or Consumer Reports, they use data from reported unexpected vehicle problems, the severity of those problems, and the frequency of those problems.
Most automotive research sites use data from one, two, or all three of these outlets to put together their own reliability results.
Overall Observations:
Taking data from all three sources and combining them, we can see trends and items of interest as well as make several general observations about the most reliable car brands.
Asian Automakers:
Both Korean and Japanese automakers combine their forces to make the best overall showing on J.D. Power’s dependability list and Consumer Reports’ most reliable brands list. Toyota, Lexus, and Kia make top ten appearances on both lists. Mazda is a little lower in J.D. Power’s rankings than in Consumer Reports’, but the brand is still rated much better than average overall.
Hyundai and Genesis rank much higher on J.D. Power’s dependability list than in Consumer Report’s rankings, but they still only fall to mid-pack there. Nissan is near the lower-middle end of both lists but still ranks higher than many domestic and European brands.
The largest discrepancy between both lists involves Honda and Subaru. Both automakers are top-ten picks for CR but lower in the rankings for J.D. Power.
The Notable Models:
Strong year-over-year performers like the Toyota Prius, Toyota Corolla, Lexus GX, and Mazda MX-5 Miata have helped keep their respective brands close to where they have been in the past several years. Still, there are several surprises from both Consumer Reports and J.D. power regarding some models.
CR’s predicted surprisingly low reliability scores for the Toyota RAV4 Prime and Toyota Tundra have apparently not hurt Toyota’s ratings that badly. Other popular vehicles like the Ford Explorer, Kia Sorento, and Nissan Sentra have terrible predicted reliability scores from CR.
A relatively new crossover to make a great appearance is the Toyota Corolla Cross. It earns a 96/100 predicted reliability score from Consumer Reports. Another surprise is the Audi A5. It earns a 95/100, helping Audi reach the sixth spot in CR’s overall rankings.
J.D. Power’s high ratings and various awards for several Chevrolet models are surprising given that they dropped so far in CR’s ratings.
Generally speaking, sedans, hatchbacks, and coupes are among the most reliable models. Despite their popularity, pickup trucks are generally the least reliable models. RepairPal speculates that this is possibly due to their comparably high workload, more expensive repairs compared to other types of vehicles, and the willingness of many truck owners to do their own repairs.
Problematic Brands:
RAM, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and Jeep consistently rank lower than average on reliability reports. Even though not ranked by J.D. Power or RepairPal, Tesla has seemingly started to rise within the reliability ranks, but they are still projected to be less reliable than average.
These low rankings can be attributed to powertrain issues with RAM and Jeep and overly complicated technology in many Mercedes-Benz and Tesla models.
The Rise of Electric Vehicles:
Hybrid and electric vehicles are starting to show up more often on the road. The Ford Maverick, Toyota Prius Prime, Lexus NX Hybrid, Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid, and Kia EV6 all earn high marks for predicted reliability and fuel economy.
While hybrids make a good showing, electric vehicles are experiencing some growing pains. Even though they have simpler powertrains than gasoline-powered vehicles, EVs like the Volkswagen ID.4, Hyundai Kona Electric, and Chevrolet Bolt are rated lower because of battery-related issues.
In addition to Tesla’s continued build quality issues, complicated infotainment systems remain its Achilles heel.
