A new car reliability survey ranks electric and hybrid vehicles best overall. A rating of 96.1 percent compares with 86.5 percent for the worst-performing vehicle category: luxury SUVs.
The second-best category in the 2019 What Car? survey is city cars, with a 94.7 percent rating for reliability.
When it comes to individual brand reliability, you might be surprised to see Tesla placed fourth, on 96.9 percent. In fact, the only marque that seems to be dragging down the electric and hybrid class is Renault, with the Zoe scoring a disappointing 82.3 percent.
At the opposite end of the scale, the Lexus CT and Toyota Yaris Hybrid both received 100 percent ratings.
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As for luxury SUVs, you could blame much of their dismal performance on the Range Rover. It’s the least reliable car on sale, with a 69.3 percent rating.
The Volkswagen Touareg SUV, by contast, scores 96 percent.
The small and family SUV classes perform disappointingly, given their popularity. Ratings of 93.3 and 91.6 percent respectively are just below average. Again, the family SUV class seems to suffer for the inclusion of the Range Rover Evoque, which scores just 78.4 percent.
Overall, Land Rover is the least reliable marque, with an average rating of 81.3 percent. Lexustops the table, with a 99.3 percent rating.
The What Car? survey questioned more than 18,000 car owners about their experiences This included how reliable their car had been over the past 12 months, how long it took for faults to be repaired, plus what it cost.
“With some models suffering a near-50 percent failure rate, it shows how important it is for buyers do their research when purchasing their next car,” commented Steve Huntingford, editor of What Car?.
