A large percentage of the cars on the road, up to half in some countries, are owned and maintained by fleet management groups rather than individuals. In recent times we’ve seen a number of fleet management companies begin producing statistics on the reliability of their often massive fleets to better inform the public on the reliability of current vehicles. Now U.K. publication Fleet News has conducted research across a number of the major British fleets to produce a reliability survey across more than a million late model vehicles to reveal that the Honda Civic is the UK’s most reliable car and the Ford Transit the most reliable van. Honda snagged three of the top four most reliable cars but got beaten as the most reliable manufacturer.

The research, making it the largest vehicle reliability survey ever conducted in the country, quizzed companies
involved in the contract hire and leasing sector and asked them to rate each vehicle they have on their fleet.

In total, the reliability survey covered 840,000 cars and 183,000 light commercial vehicles.

Tables of the top 10 most reliable cars and top five most reliable vans are listed below, as are tables for the
most reliable car and van manufacturers.

Stephen Briers, editor of Fleet News said:
“This survey is the largest of its kind in the country and is based on feedback from those who really know about the reliability of vehicles – people who run hundreds of thousands of vehicles over many hundreds of thousands of miles.”

The survey saw Honda score highly, with the Civic in top spot followed by the Jazz in third and Accord in fourth
place. BMW was second and fifth with the 3 Series and 5 Series respectively, while Mini placed eighth.

Overall, BMW was named as the most reliable car manufacturer – although it finished tied for top spot with Honda
more contract hire and leasing companies voted BMW as top.

The Ford Transit was named most reliable van, with its Transit Connect sister model third, while Ford took the
overall reliability title.

Most reliable car

Honda Civic
BMW 3 Series
Honda Jazz
Honda Accord
BMW 5 Series
Audi A4
Mercedes Benz C-Class
Mini
Toyota Avensis
Volkswagen Golf

Most reliable car manufacturer

BMW
Honda
Audi
Toyota
Volkswagen
Mercedes-Benz
Ford
Mazda
Nissan
Skoda

Most reliable van

Ford Transit
Vauxhall Astravan
Ford Transit Connect
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
Volkswagen Transporter

Most reliable van manufacturer

Ford
Mercedes-Benz
Volkswagen
Vauxhall
Peugeot