Toyota and its luxury subsidiary Lexus are the most reliable car brands in South Africa, according to two different international consumer studies.
The first report comes from the North American firm J.D Power, which found Lexus to be the best make in its latest vehicle dependability study.
A separate global study from Consumer Reports (CR) further solidified these findings, with both arms of the Japanese automaker taking the top spots.
Thinking about the long run
J.D Power’s long-running vehicle study looks at various criteria to determine the reliability of a model, which is compiled into a score indicative of the overall quality of that brand.
It uses a public survey with more than 200 questions which focuses on nine main categories – features, controls and displays, infotainment, exterior, driving assistance, interior, powertrain, seats, climate, and driving experience.
The CR study is quite similar, using data collected from more than 330,000 individuals highlighting the problems they have had with their cars over the last 12 months, from minor issues like squeaking brakes to major drivetrain faults.
These answers are organized according to their severity to identify “trouble areas” within certain brands and models, which allows them to calculate a reliability score for each one.
You can see the results for the top 30 brands from each study in the table below:
Note that the manufacturers that are not available in South Africa are marked with an asterisk.
| Rank | JD Power | CR |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lexus | Lexus |
| 2 | Toyota | Toyota |
| 3 | Buick* | Mini |
| 4 | Chevrolet* | Acura* |
| 5 | Mini | Honda |
| 6 | Porsche | Subaru |
| 7 | Mazda | Mazda |
| 8 | Kia | Porsche |
| 9 | BMW | BMW |
| 10 | Dodge* | Kia |
| 11 | Jeep | Hyundai |
| 12 | Cadillac* | Buick* |
| 13 | Hyundai | Infiniti* |
| 14 | Subaru | Tesla* |
| 15 | Nissan | Ram* |
| 16 | Genesis* | Cadillac* |
| 17 | Ram* | Nissan |
| 18 | GMC* | Genesis* |
| 19 | Honda | Audi |
| 20 | Acura* | Chevrolet* |
| 21 | Mercedes-Benz | Dodge* |
| 22 | Infiniti* | Ford |
| 23 | Ford | Lincoln* |
| 24 | Volvo | GMC* |
| 25 | Lincoln* | Volvo |
| 26 | VW | Jeep |
| 27 | Land Rover | VW |
| 28 | Audi | Rivian* |
| 29 | Chrysler* | Mercedes-Benz |
| 30 | Tesla* | Chrysler* |
The two examinations are quite similar with the same brands appearing near the top or bottom for the most part.
Lexus, Toyota, Mini, BMW, Kia, Porsche, and Mazda are in the top 10 on both lists, while Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and VW are in the bottom 10.
One major deviation is Jeep, which is 11th in one survey and 26th in another.
Interestingly, Kia is higher than Hyundai on both lists despite the two carmakers sharing the same platform on several of their models.
Another strange case is VW which is rated higher than its luxury sub-brand Audi by J.D Power, but worse by CR.
More generally, Asian brands from Japan and South Korea seem to perform better on average while there is a lot more variation from American nameplates.
BMW is also rated more highly than its German rivals Audi and Mercedes, which is reflected in Mini, which has been owned by BMW since 1996.
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