These are the UK’s most reliable new cars and the models to avoid Yorkshire News

The most reliable new and near-new cars have been named, with the UK’s cheapest car among the flagship vehicles dwarfing some of the biggest premium names.

The Dacia Sandero, officially the cheapest new car on sale in the UK, was one of six models to earn a perfect 100% reliability rating in the annual What Car? Study, with Dacia as a brand second only to regular high-performance Lexus.

The 2013-2020 Sandero was joined by the Audi TT, Mazda CX-3, Mini Convertible, Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross and Honda HR-V as the most reliable models in the country, according to a survey of more than 16,000 motorists.

The what car? The study asked car owners up to five years old about their experiences over the past 12 months, including reports of failures or breakdowns along with the time and cost required to fix the problem.

Twenty percent of drivers said they had experienced a failure in their car in the past year, and the manufacturer corrected 85 percent for free.

The study covered 178 models from 30 brands and the top six models returned in a completely clean state of health, finishing at the top of their respective segments.

As a brand, Lexus scored a near-perfect 98.7 percent. Its NX SUV topped the hybrid category, the segment with the best overall record, with a 99.8 percent rating.

Despite being at the opposite end of the market to Lexus, the low-cost Romanian brand Dacia took second place in the table with a 97.3 percent rating, just ahead of Suzuki and Hyundai with 97.1.

Hybrids were determined to be the most reliable category, with an overall rating of 96.9 percent.

In contrast, luxury SUVs were poorly classified overall, with an average score of 88.8%, although the Porsche Macan achieved a creditable 97.9%. The Land Rover Discovery received the lowest score in this class with a score of 72.1%.

Land Rover as a brand performed relatively poorly in the survey, its 82.5 percent rating making it second from last on the list, just above Fiat, which was ranked the least trustworthy brand with a rating of the 82 percent.

However, the Nissan X-Trail was rated the least reliable model overall, with a reliability rating of just 59.7 percent. The Discovery was the second least reliable model, just ahead of the Porsche 718 Cayman (73.5%), Volkswagen Touran (74.1%) and Ford Fiesta (74.9%).

Steve Huntingford, what car? editor, said: “The UK used car market is currently booming so it is even more important that people know which models will be reliable. With feedback from over 16,000 owners, the latest What Car? The reliability survey highlights the makes and models with the best and worst records.

“Our latest study also shows that a high price is not always a guarantee of reliability, because some of the cheapest cars in Britain are among the most reliable.”