Most reliable car brands for 2024 revealed: Where does YOUR manufacturer rank?

Buying a new car is expensive without subsequently forking out hundreds or even thousands of pounds in repair bills.

But there is a way for prospective buyers to help avoid this by consulting reliability surveys where owners give feedback on how dependable their car is and whether they'd recommend it.

WhatCar? has its annual reliability poll is one of the biggest in the UK -  with this year's conducted in association with MotorEasy - gathering the views of 29,967 car owners.

So, which car manufacturers should you trust to give you a reliable set of wheels and which should you avoid (even if they're tempting)? We reveal the answers...

(Most and least reliable cars: With Britons currently facing soaring costs and a budget looming,  households don't need their car to face endless repair bills)

The WhatCar? survey asks drivers to feedback about their car's reliability over a two-year period, and the cars can be up to five years old.

Motorists reported faults, how much each issue cost to fix and how long it kept their car off the road, and these responses were then used to 'create a unique reliability rating for each car and brand'.

Owners were asked to give detailed descriptions of issues across numerous fault categories from bodywork to brakes, engine to exhaust and interior trims to infotainment.

Which cars and brands are included?

For the 2024 reliability survey What Car? Included data for 199 models from 31 brands. 

If the sample size was big enough diesel, electric, hybrid and petrol version were separated and only cars up to five years old were included because that covers the minimum three-year new car warranty, as well as an additional two years where faults are usually fixed free of charge.

Most reliable and unreliable car brands

The most reliable brand of 2024 is Mini, climbing two places on last year, with an almost perfect score for all five models reported – across electric, petrol and diesel powertrains – and an overall score of 98.3 per cent.

In second place was Lexus – the former winner seven-time champion – just 0.4 percentage points behind Mini, netting 97.9 per cent.

(Until this year Lexus was the seven-time champion of What Car?'s reliability awards. It only dropped one place)

Suzuki rounded out the top three, taking an overall score of 97.7 per cent, with the Swift and Vitara scoring 95.7 per cent and 97.7 per cent respectively.

MOST RELIABLE BRANDS

1. Mini - 98.3% 
2. Lexus- 97.9% 
3. Suzuki- 97.7%
4. Honda- 96.6% 
5. Toyota- 96.1% 
6. Dacia- 96% 
7. Citroen- 94.1% 
8. BMW- 94% 
9. Renault- 93.6% 
10. Hyundai- 93.5% 

LEAST RELIABLE BRANDS

1. MG - 76.9% 
2. Alfa Romeo - 84.1% 
3. Vauxhall- 84.7% 
4. Nissan - 85.9% 
5. Land Rover - 87.1% 
6. Seat- 87.5% 
7. Fiat- 88.2% 
8. Audi- 89%
9. Polestar- 89.3% 
10. Mercedes-Benz - 89.7% 

Source: What Car? Reliability Survey 2024 based on models up to 5 years old.