The most reliable car brands, according to Consumer Reports, and how many recalls each has filed this year
Toyota is back on top, every U.S. brand sits in the bottom half, and the ranking says something different from the recall record. Ford is mid-table on reliability and first by a distance on recalls.
Consumer Reports' latest brand reliability ranking, from its Annual Auto Reliability survey published on 4 December 2025, puts Toyota first with a predicted reliability score of 66 out of 100, according to Cars.com's report of the results. Subaru, last year's leader, is second on 63 and Lexus third on 60. The survey covers about 380,000 vehicles from the 2000 to 2025 model years, plus a few early 2026 models. CR names the Camry, Tacoma and Tundra as the models behind Toyota's gain.
It is still the current edition: CR runs the survey once a year, and these are the scores behind its 2026 buying advice.
The full ranking
| # | Brand | CR reliability score | Recall campaigns in 2026* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toyota | 66 | 21 |
| 2 | Subaru | 63 | 4 |
| 3 | Lexus | 60 | 9 |
| 4 | Honda | 59 | 14 |
| 5 | BMW | 58 | 11 |
| 6 | Nissan | 57 | 12 |
| 7 | Acura | 54 | 5 |
| 8 | Buick | 51 | 3 |
| 9 | Tesla | 50 | 6 |
| 10 | Kia | 49 | 9 |
| 11 | Ford | 48 | 76 |
| 12 | Hyundai | 48 | 17 |
| 13 | Audi | 44 | 5 |
| 14 | Mazda | 43 | — |
| 15 | Volvo | 42 | 14 |
| 16 | Volkswagen | 42 | 10 |
| 17 | Chevrolet | 42 | 19 |
| 18 | Cadillac | 41 | 9 |
| 19 | Mercedes-Benz | 41 | 15 |
| 20 | Lincoln | 40 | 19 |
| 21 | Genesis | 33 | 5 |
| 22 | Chrysler | 31 | 7 |
| 23 | GMC | 31 | 15 |
| 24 | Jeep | 28 | 19 |
| 25 | Ram | 26 | 15 |
| 26 | Rivian | 24 | 5 |
Scores as reported by Cars.com from CR's December 2025 survey; CR's own summary lists Lexus, Subaru and Toyota as the top three. CR left out Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Fiat, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lucid, Maserati, Mini, Mitsubishi, Polestar and Porsche for lack of data. *Recall campaigns from NHTSA records, 1 January to 9 October 2026, counting each campaign that names at least one of the brand's vehicles; no Mazda campaign is on file for that period.
What moved
- Tesla made the biggest gain, up eight places to ninth; the Model Y is CR's most reliable EV.
- Mazda made the biggest drop, down eight to 14th, which CR ties to the plug-in hybrid CX-70 and CX-90.
- Buick is the best U.S. brand, in eighth. The bottom five are all American: Chrysler, GMC, Jeep, Ram and Rivian.
- By region, Asian brands average 56, European brands 50 and U.S. brands 41.
- Hybrids have about 15% fewer problems than gas cars and EVs and plug-in hybrids about 80% more, Cars.com reports; no conventional hybrid is among CR's least reliable models.
Reliability is not the same as recalls
CR counts every problem owners had, most of them nothing to do with safety. A recall is a safety defect the manufacturer has admitted to. The two do not line up neatly: Ford is 11th for reliability and has filed 76 recall campaigns this year, more than three times Toyota's 21, which is the next highest of these brands. A long recall list partly measures how readily a maker files, and Ford has been filing at a record pace. A short one is not proof of a sound car either.
For any single model, the year matters more than the badge. Our model pages rank every year against its siblings, for example Toyota Camry years to avoid or Ford F-150 years to avoid.
Sources
- Consumer Reports: Who makes the most reliable new cars?
- Cars.com: Toyota again tops CR's reliability survey
- Jalopnik: CR's most reliable brand is no longer Subaru
Complaint and recall figures from NHTSA files of 15 October 2026 (complaints) and 9 October 2026 (recalls). Complaints are unverified reports by owners. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.