Revealing the company’s most reliable cars for the year 2023

BMW’s eight-year lead as the most reliable car brand has ended, with the Munich giant falling two places in this year’s FN50 poll.

It has been replaced by Toyota, which has jumped to the top of the table. Meanwhile, Audi maintained its place between the two, taking second place.

Fleet News asked rental companies to consider the brands and cars they had in their fleet over the past 12 months as part of the research for this year’s FN50 report and list the most reliable ones.

Click here to read the full analysis of the FN50.

This was based on the average number of days off the road due to unplanned mechanical problems (but not including punctures).

However, it’s not all bad news for BMW. The 3 Series still outperforms all other models, with the UK’s largest rental companies giving it first place as the most reliable car.

Most reliable car brand:

* 2022 position in parentheses

Launched in 2018, the G20 3 Series quickly became a favorite among company car drivers and was awarded Best Luxury Car for two years in a row at the Fleet News Awards. The 330e was the second best-selling hybrid car in the UK in 2022 and is offered in saloon or estate body styles.

The second most reliable car in this year’s survey is – perhaps not surprisingly – a Toyota. The Corolla hatch is climbing the rankings, taking fourth place in 2022 and eighth in 2021. It’s an impressive performance for the hybrid model, which was launched in 2018 and refreshed earlier this year.

At the bottom of the list, the compact all-wheel drive Toyota C-HR took tenth place. This, coupled with the improved performance of the brand’s other models, has helped secure the automaker’s top spot in this year’s FN50 reliability survey.

Gallery: The company’s most reliable cars for 2023

Hyundai Tucson is a newcomer to the rating of the most reliable cars. It broke into third place, having not even made the top 15 last year. The relaunch of the model in 2020 marked a luxurious move and offered a variety of fleet-friendly hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains. With an average FN50 lease of three years, these figures indicate that the majority of Tucson models included in the survey are from the latest generation.

Below the Tucson is the Audi A4. The aging model fell to fourth place from third place last year. It topped the table in 2019 and 2020. The Audi A3 also suffered a decline this year, falling from seventh to eighth place.

The Kia Sportage also performed well this year, finishing in fifth place. The popular SUV shares a platform with the Tucson and its performance has enabled Kia to sneak into the top 10 manufacturers list, behind Hyundai.

The most reliable car model:

* 2022 position in parentheses

Tesla came back with less impressive performance. The Model 3, which finished second last year after jumping its way up the table from 15th place the previous year, has moved back down the table to sixth place. Registrations for the Model 3 and Model Y have soared, with the latter becoming the best-selling electric car in the UK. The Model Y ranked 14th this year, while the brand placed seventh overall.

At the bottom of the list, the Honda Civic moved up two places after launching an all-new model last year. The Volvo XC40 fell one place, staying below the Audi A3, but overall Volvo improved its position to sixth in the manufacturer’s rankings.

Volkswagen failed to break into the top 10 with any models this year, after the Golf struggled from sixth to 11th. Its ID models – the ID3 and ID4 – appear in the ranking for the first time, occupying 15th and 13th places respectively. The brand fell from fourth to fifth place overall, in the manufacturers’ ranking, losing its place to Mercedes-Benz.

Skoda, one of Volkswagen’s sister brands, suffered a stronger decline from seventh place last year to thirteenth place in 2023.

Polestar takes 11th place on the manufacturers list, with the Polestar 2 delivering strong performance two years in a row and maintaining its position as the 12th most reliable car.