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Buying a car is a massive investment. Not only does the average American hold onto their cars for well over a decade, but cars depreciate in value from the moment they’re driven off the lot. That means you’ll never get out what you put in financially. For those reasons, it’s important to buy a reliable vehicle that’ll go the distance. After all, nothing feels worse than spending tens of thousands of dollars on a car and then having to fix it every year.  

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This is harder said than done because there are dozens of vehicle models on the market, and they are not all made the same. One brand may have excellent, reliable SUVs that stand the test of time while simultaneously selling cars that no new driver should buy. Even then, model years matter, and some years are better than others for virtually all vehicles, so it’s worth taking a look every year to see where brands are when it comes to the overall reliability of their product lineup.

If you’re car shopping in 2025, here’s a list of brands that pass the test in terms of reliability. It is worth noting that most authorities on the matter consider today’s vehicles to be a little less reliable than ones from years ago. Per JD Power, the main reason for this is basically a holdover from the pandemic when materials were out of sorts and the increasing number of infotainment problems customers have. With that said, let’s talk about reliable car brands. 

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We start our list with Nissan. In terms of overall reliability, Nissan is fairly average, scoring decent marks from JD Power, RepairPal, and other sources. That means that you have pretty good odds of getting a Nissan vehicle that’ll last you for quite a while, but there are clearly better options out there in terms of reliability. That includes the entire lineup, from Nissan’s insanely popular Nissan Rogue to the Frontier and everything in between. 

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For the most part, it seems the authorities on the matter like Nissan. JD Power gives most vehicles in the lineup favorable reliability ratings but does tend to be sweeter on vehicles with larger engines like the Frontier and Murano. Those larger engines tend to be naturally aspirated, which also tends to be more reliable overall. RepairPal says that Nissan vehicles can expect to break down less frequently than many other brands but does note that the severity of the breakdowns tends to be slightly higher than average. 

With that said, the brand isn’t without its controversies. A couple of Nissan’s engines included in some Nissan Rogues and Altima models had a defect that caused premature engine failure. It seems the brand has cleaned up the mess, so 2025 models shouldn’t be affected by the defect. Still, it’s worth inquiring about before purchasing a new Nissan. 

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Infiniti is Nissan’s luxury brand. As such, the two commonly share parts under the hood, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the two are fairly close together in the rankings. In fact, you could swap Infiniti for Nissan, and it would still be accurate as the two are virtually tied. JD Power is a little sweeter on Infiniti than it is on Nissan, but RepairPal likes Nissan a little more. Take that for what you will. 

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In any case, the same logic that these authorities have with Nissan holds true for Infiniti. The vehicles with the highest reliability ratings tend to be the brand’s larger vehicles with larger engines. For example, JD Power says that the Infiniti QX80 is quite a bit more reliable than the smaller QX60. With that said, the predicted reliability of the brand’s lineup is mostly positive or at least average, so Infiniti does okay overall. The big news here, though, is that Infiniti and Nissan are about the same. 

With its close relationship with Nissan, Infiniti also had to deal with the three and four-cylinder engine issues in the brand’s QX50 and QX55. The engines have since been cleaned up, but we might stick with the larger engines for Infiniti just to make sure. 

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Genesis is in a similar spot as Nissan. None of the authorities on reliability rank the brand particularly high, but they also don’t rank the brand as low either. It appears as though the powers that be consider Genesis average when it comes to overall reliability. Part of that is likely because Genesis is Hyundai’s luxury brand, and luxury vehicles are judged a little harsher. The reason why varies, but it tends to stem from the fact that repairs and maintenance are more expensive on luxury models.

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Genesis doesn’t have a ton of cars in its lineup so determining the best ones is pretty simple. Most authorities agree that the brand’s sedans are more reliable than the SUVs. During our research, we found that the sedans like the G80 were considered noticeably more reliable than the GV80. There could be any number of reasons for this but most of the blame likely comes from the higher number of options like the Genesis GV80’s electronically controlled suspension system that doesn’t make an appearance in the G80. More moving parts usually means more problems. 

Unlike Nissan, Genesis lacks recent controversies. Indeed, by most accounts we could find, there are plenty of happy Genesis owners out there who have had little to no problems with their cars.

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Considering that GM brands tend to do poorly on predicted reliability rankings, it’s kind of a surprise that Buick is here at all. Based on our research, it is the most reliable GM brand on the market and it’s not particularly close. JD Power is the happiest with Buick’s offerings, giving it 2nd place overall in its 2025 predicted reliability report. RepairPal and other authorities consider Buick slightly above average overall, which is a lot better than its corporate stablemates. We’re not entirely sure why since all of GM’s brands use similar parts.

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Our theory is that it’s because Buick doesn’t have that many models to bring down the average. Buick also bucks the trend of its larger vehicles having better-predicted reliability than the smaller ones. In fact, its Encore GX SUV is the brand’s highest-rated Buick vehicle on JD Power despite being the smallest. Overall, all vehicles in Buick’s lineup scored within a few points of each other, making it one of the most consistent brands on the list.

GM has some of the biggest engine recalls in U.S. history, but none of the recent ones have affected Buick. In one instance, GM had to recall 500,000 vehicles for diesel engine woes. Buick doesn’t use diesel engines, which is why they’re here and the other GM products aren’t. 

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Subaru is much in the same position as Buick. Some reliability websites rank Subaru quite highly, while others are a little more lukewarm on the auto brand. However, Subaru scored above average everywhere and is definitely worthy of being on the list. Per RepairPal, Subarus have the same deal as Nissan. They tend to break down less frequently, but repairs tend to be more costly. 

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We don’t know if it’s Subaru’s excellent boxer engines or what, but the brand has a pretty good track record overall. The Outback and Forester both score quite well, with the Crosstrek being among the highest rated vehicles in Subaru’s lineup. The question mark appears to be the Subaru WRX. We’re not sure if it’s because people tend to drive WRX models more aggressively or if it’s because modding is fairly commonplace, but they have historically not been the most reliable vehicles. This drags Subaru’s score on some websites, even if the WRX isn’t the brand’s most popular car.

The short answer is this. If you want a reliable Subaru, you should probably stick with the more mainstream options or refrain from driving your WRX like you stole it.

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Ah yes, the Hyundai and Kia twins. It wasn’t long ago that both brands were considered toward the bottom of the reliability stack, either due to their former low-cost nature or because of the brand’s hilariously unsuccessful Theta II engine. Regardless, both brands seem to have shed those old woes and are doing quite well these days. For Hyundai, the brand ranks above average on just about every website with RepairPal calling them a top 10 brand in terms of reliability. 

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There doesn’t appear to be a reason for Hyundai’s turnaround. In general, Hyundai’s big-ticket items like the Tucson, Elantra, and Palisade all score high marks on all the reliability websites we looked at. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern or reason for it. They are just solid vehicles. In fact, just a few years ago, Hyundai may have scored even higher on our list. However, EVs do not rank well in reliability ratings in general and the brand’s Ioniq 6 definitely drags it down a bit in the rankings. 

Our advice is get the EV if you don’t mind a few more repair shop trips, but most of the rest of the brand’s lineup should be good, especially with Hyundai’s long warranty.

Kia’s ranking is virtually identical to Hyundai’s. Generally speaking, we saw only minor differences on the various reliability websites. JD Power and RepairPal both like Kia a hair more than Hyundai. In all honesty, you could flip-flop Kia and Hyundai on any list you see them on, and it would still be accurate. Both companies use virtually the same architectures, engines, and other components, with most of the differences being in interior and exterior styling. 

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Thus, it should be no surprise that Kia’s most reliable vehicles are just their versions of the same Hyundai vehicles. The Telluride, Kia K5, and Sportage all score high marks just like their Hyundai counterparts. The low points in terms of reliability are Kia’s EV vehicles, such as the EV6, just like Hyundai’s Ioniq. You see where this is going. The brands are nearly identical in terms of reliability because their vehicles are nearly identical where it counts. 

With that said, the vehicles do look and behave differently. Hyundai tends to lean more luxury while Kia tends to lean sportier, resulting in different engine and suspension tunings. It’s best to test drive both before making any decisions. 

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Acura is Honda’s luxury brand and, as such, shares the same relationship that Nissan and Infiniti do. Acura is a darling on the reliability charts, scoring quite high nearly everywhere we looked. Only JD Power seemed a little sour on the brand, stating that their metrics showed that Acura was in the shop more often than other brands. Acura’s lineup is quite small, so part of its advantage on a list like this is that there are fewer bad vehicles to drag down the averages. 

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That isn’t to say Acura is perfect. Its RDX and MDX SUVs are the apple in Acura’s eye when it comes to reliability, scoring well on every website we checked. Meanwhile, the sedans did a little bit worse than their SUV counterparts, which prevented Acura from climbing even further up the list. Additionally, Acura revived its ZDX badge for use in its new electric vehicle. It’s too new to find trustworthy reliability numbers but EVs in general tend to score worse on these things anyway, which doesn’t help Acura here. 

We advise sticking with the SUVs since they are Acura’s bread and butter, and you should be fine. The cars are still good, just slightly less so.

Honda has some of the most reliable vehicles ever built, and some of their engines have proven that they can stand the test of time. As such, it should be no surprise that Honda trends to the top of the leaderboards here. All reliability authorities scored Honda above average, with RepairPal scoring Honda as the most reliable brand according to its metrics. RepairPal says its metrics show that Honda not only goes to the mechanic less often, but its issues are generally not severe, leading to overall lower ownership costs. 

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To the surprise of no one, the CR-V is Honda’s best-rated vehicle when it comes to reliability. The HR-V and Ridgeline also score well. Much like Acura, the sedans are a little less favorable, with the Accord scoring a merely average rating. Like Acura, Hyundai, and Kia — the inclusion of the Honda Prologue as an EV skews the ratings a little bit here. It’s simply too new to get reliable data at this time but we already know that EVs tend to be less reliable.

Overall, Honda is a solid brand, and its EVs are likely better than most. Even so, the CR-V is an easy choice for something functional and reliable. 

Mazda is an interesting case. It’s the first brand on the list that has scored in the top 10 on every reliability list we looked through. In fact, it’s one of only three automakers that can boast that distinction. Its highest ranking comes from JD Power, which ranks it third overall on its leaderboards, followed by RepairPal’s fifth-place ranking. RepairPal says that Mazda’s breakdown frequency is about average but that the severity of those breakdowns is rarely severe. 

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Mazda may fall down a few slots next year as it continues to phase out old products in place of new ones. As it stands, legacy products like the CX-5, Mazda3, and CX-30 carry the rankings with the highest marks among Mazda’s lineup. The CX-50 and CX-90 are at the bottom but still garner at least average ratings overall. 

The big thing working against Mazda is that they’ve introduced a few new cars in recent years. The CX-50 is only a few years old while the CX-90 was introduced in 2024. The middle child — the CX 70 — is new for the 2025 model year. None of those have a ton of historical reliability data yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how they will do over the long term.

Toyota is the second automaker to have top-10 finishes on every reliability list we sorted through. In fact, only RepairPal’s 7th place rating kept Toyota from being the first automaker with top five placements all around. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Toyota has long been hailed as being a little bit boring but about as bulletproof as an auto brand can get. It seems 2025 won’t be much different from the last couple of years for Toyota,

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Toyota has a bunch of vehicles in its lineup. The Rav4, Highlander, Camry, and Corolla all score well on reliability metrics, which is surprising because Toyota sells hybrid models of all of those, and the electrification didn’t lower the reliability scores by much. Among the hybrids, Toyota’s recently redesigned Prius sits at the bottom but still scores higher than many hybrids. Only Toyota’s bZ4X scored anything other than above average. It’s the EV in the lineup, so that makes sense. 

The short answer is that you can buy a Toyota with confidence. While their cars are often referred to as appliances for how boring they are, they’ll get you and your family from point A to point B for years to come. 

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Lexus is the highest-rated individual automaker on the list by every metric we could find. It scored top marks on JD Power, was in the top three on most other reliability ratings, and scored 6th on RepairPal. It’s slightly lower score on RepairPal is almost certainly because it’s a luxury brand, which is intrinsically more expensive as its breakdown rates and severity on RepairPal rivaled other top three automakers. In short, the only thing keeping Lexus down is technicalities. 

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Let’s break it down: The brand is held up by its RX 350 and ES 350 models, with the ES 350 having the highest predicted reliability of any model we’ve mentioned in this article. Its NX models also do quite well and even the hybrids do better than most. The bad mark on an otherwise excellent report card is the RZ, which is Lexus’ EV. There simply wasn’t enough reliability data since the badge is still so new, but we imagine it’s not far off from other EVs. 

Lexus is a luxury brand, so it’s quite a bit more expensive than most of the other automakers on the list. That’ll keep most folks from buying one, but those that do have good odds of getting a reliable car. 

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For the most part, this list was written using the process of elimination. We looked at predicted reliability from sites like JD Power and historical data from sites like RepairPal and started pruning the metaphorical bush from there. For example, BMW rated highly on many predicted reliability lists but was among the worst on RepairPal’s list, so it was excluded. Meanwhile, other brands like Audi, Ford, most GMC brands, and all Stellantis brands ranked below average on every list we found, so they were also excluded.

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Meanwhile, EVs all ranked poorly on every list we found, canceling out Rivian, Tesla, and similar brands. The data is there and it can’t be ignored as it also dragged down the score of every automaker that has one in their lineup. However, this makes sense because EVs are a new car technology, and it takes a while to work out the various bugs and issues. EVs will become more reliable as the years go but they’re still in their infancy relative to the internal combustion engine. 

We also want to point out that lists like this are intrinsically inexact. You can move the list around in a few different ways depending on how you look at the data and it’ll still be accurate. However, we are confident that the automakers above have the best odds of pumping out a reliable vehicle.

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