The most reliable car brands in South Africa

 ·24 May 2024

Lexus and Toyota are the most reliable car brands available in South Africa, according to two separate international studies.

Consumer intelligence company J.D. Power’s latest vehicle dependability study crowned Lexus the most dependable vehicle brand for the second year in a row.

Toyota’s parent company won the mass market, while Porsche and BMW topped the rankings for premium brands.

The Porsche 718 was also named the most dependable car model.

Buick, Chevrolet, and Mini also make the overall top five. However, Buick and Chevrolet are no longer available in South Africa following General Motors’s exit from South Africa in 2017 as part of a global restructuring.

Tesla was at the bottom of the list, with J.D. Power saying that owners of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles face more problems than owners of gas-powered and hybrid vehicles. 

Technology-related problems are the biggest issues facing cars, with the most problematic vehicle category being infotainment, which sees nearly twice as many problems as the next-highest category, exterior. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are the top problems, followed by built-in voice recognition.

For cars available in South Africa, Audi was at the bottom of the reliability ratings.

According to a recent Consumer Reports (CR) study, another German manufacturer, Mercedes Benz, was the least reliable brand available in South Africa.

Volkswagen was also named in the bottom five in both studies.

On the other end of the scale in the Consumer Reports study, Lexus and Toyota were again named as number one and two for reliability, respectively.

Mini again made the top five, getting a bronze medal.

When it comes to Premium Brands, Porsche and BMW again top the list, even though Hondas, Subarus, and Mazdas are seen as more reliable.

The most reliable brands in both studies can be found below (Brands available in South Africa in bold):

RankJD Power CR
1LexusLexus
2ToyotaToyota
3BuickMini
4ChevroletAcura
5MINIHonda
6PorscheSubaru
7MazdaMazda
8KiaPorsche
9BMWBMW
10DodgeKia
11JeepHyundai
12CadillacBuick
13HyundaiInfiniti
14SubaruTesla
15NissanRam
16GenesisCadillac
17RamNissan
18GMCGenesis
19HondaAudi
20AcuraChevrolet
21Mercedes-BenzDodge
22InfinitiFord
23FordLincoln
24VolvoGMC
25LincolnVolvo
26VolkswagenJeep
27Land RoverVolkswagen
28AudiRivian
29ChryslerMercedes-Benz
30TeslaChrysler
Brands available in South Africa in bold

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