Reliability is one of the major considerations when buying a car. And Consumer Reports — among the biggest names in judging product reliability — just published their car brand reliability rankings for 2022. CR assessed more than 300,000 vehicles for the survey over the past 12 months, grading vehicles with an expected reliability score from 0-100. (A ranking of 40-60 is average. )
Hybrid cars were the most reliable vehicles, which helped out reliability leader Toyota. Full-size pickups and electric cars tend to be the least reliable. The bottom five finishers were Chevrolet, GMC, Volkswagen, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz. Tesla finished 19th out of 24 brands with enough data to participate.
It’s also worth noting that reliability isn’t the only factor for consideration. The Lexus GX, for instance, has impressive reliability. But that’s in large part because the current generation has been in production for 14 years and it is seldom updated. Whereas a brand like Mercedes — regularly upgrading its product lineup and incorporating cutting-edge infotainment and powertrain technology — will have more reliability issues.
Here are the five most reliable car brands according to Consumer Reports.
1. Toyota (72)
ToyotaConsumer Reports found that every Toyota except for two had above or well-above average reliability. The new Corolla Cross was the most reliable. The RAV4 Prime had average reliability issues.
