Revealed: the older cars with stellar reliability

The latest Which? car survey data reveals that if you choose carefully, you can get your hands on a really reliable car for a fraction of the cost of a new one that might actually give you more grief. 

Fault-free motoring isn’t limited to the latest and greatest cars. In fact, we’ve found three cars over 10 years old that, according to respondents, didn’t suffer a single breakdown in the year covered by the latest Which? car survey. 

Buying used is a great way to save money, but as a car gets older, how it was treated by its former owners becomes increasingly important to its longevity. Keeping it serviced, regularly topping up fluids and driving carefully will all impact a car’s long-term reliability, but without a shortlist of cars known for their reliability, it’s hard to even get started.

Using data from the Which? car survey, we've put together a list of the most reliable 10-15-year-old cars you can buy. 

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The most reliable old cars

Below are the top 10 cars for reliability in the 10-15-year category in our most recent reliability survey. The table includes the number of days they spent off the road for repairs over 12 months, the percentage of cars that suffered complete breakdowns and the percentage that experienced at least one fault.

Table notes: Breakdowns, time off road and faults (weighted for severity of each fault) all impact the overall reliability rating for each car. Data based on an online survey of 60,448 drivers who told us about the 71,002 cars they owned, conducted April 2024 to June 2024. See full sample sizes.

Top of the models with five-star 10-15-year reliability is the Lexus CT – a full hybrid hatchback that was first released in 2011 and went off sale in 2020. Based on the owners who responded to our survey, models of this car over 10 years old suffered zero breakdowns in the 12 months prior, and just 13% of owners reported any kind of fault. 

When something did go wrong, these cars spent just over a day off the road for repairs on average, far below the average of 4.5 days for cars this age. 

The Lexus CT can be bought used for somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000. It's also loved by owners, scoring four stars out of five for satisfaction in our survey. 

While some owners complained about rear legroom and our review criticised the boot and infotainment, feedback from owners was generally glowing. A third of owners specifically mentioned reliability as a thing they love about the car, while another third raved about the car’s comfort.

Graham Elliott, from Scarborough, said it was 'the finest car that I have ever owned'. Another respondent’s only criticism was that Lexus no longer makes them. 

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Best of the rest

Just behind is the convertible Mazda MX5 – on sale from 2005 through to 2015 – which also had no reported breakdowns, and the Lexus RX Hybrid (the most satisfying car to own in the UK, according to our survey). 

Other old, but reliable, cars include the Honda Jazz (2008-15), Skoda CitiGo (2012-19) and, unusually from this usually poor performer in our survey, a BMW in the form of the X1 (2009-15).

You can find reliability data for your car – or indeed your next car – in the lookup tool within our guide to the most reliable cars. 

The least reliable old cars

Of course, there are more than a few older cars that struggle with reliability.

Below you can see the bottom five cars from our latest reliability survey, including the number of days they spent off the road for repairs over 12 months, the percentage of cars that suffered complete breakdowns and those that had any sort of fault. 

Table notes: Breakdowns, time off road and faults (weighted for severity of each fault) all impact the overall reliability rating for each car. Data based on an online survey of 60,448 drivers who told us about the 71,002 cars they owned, conducted April 2024 to June 2024. See full sample sizes.

Vauxhall's Zafira (2005-14) put in a particularly poor show in our survey: 30% of owners reported that theirs broke down in the 12 months, which is a dismal display; 55% of cars had at least one fault in those 12 months, too, with the most common issues relating to the exhaust system (23% of reported faults). Worst of all, when this car did develop a fault, it was off the road for an astonishing 16.9 days, nearly four times as long as the class average.

Another diesel, this time the Nissan Qashqai (2007-13) had a 13% breakdown rate and a 61% fault rate. 

In this age group, diesels are by far the least reliable cars, with a 48% fault rate (versus 23% for hybrids and 39% for petrol cars). 

What makes hybrids so reliable?

Michael Passingham, Which? senior researcher

Despite making up a minority of cars sold today, full hybrids (also known as self-charging hybrids) are always near the top of the Which? reliability survey, so having two in the top 10 of the oldest category might come as a surprise. It should only surprise those who believe that higher-tech cars have more that can go wrong; it’s just not that simple. For starters, Toyota sub-brand Lexus dominates the world of full hybrids, having committed to the technology way back in the late 1990s. It's had some time to get it right.

While Which? doesn’t keep track of the reliability of cars over 15 years old, I’d posit that most of us have seen early-2000s Prius models whizzing around looking somewhat dog-eared but still producing that recognisable electric hum in urban traffic. 

And these are the brands that commit to the longest manufacturer warranty around. They both offer 10-year warranties, as long as you get your car serviced at a Lexus or Toyota dealership. Yes, the pricey fee of an annual service is likely a motivator, but they also have the servicing network, personnel and reliable fleet to back it up.

And it’s a virtuous circle: an owner encouraged to take their car in every year will probably nip many issues in the bud before they cause a breakdown, and that in turn leads to a more reliable car, fewer unplanned trips to franchised dealers and, ultimately, better figures in our nationwide survey. 

More brands have started offering full hybrid cars in recent years, and the government’s new car rules (whereby you’ll be allowed to buy new hybrids alongside EVs until 2035) will surely see more hit the market soon. But it remains to be seen how reliable they’ll be. Nissan, Kia and Honda are all looking promising, according to our data, alongside Toyota and Lexus, but only time will tell whether these brands have produced a reliable set of hybrids. 

How we calculate reliability

Every year, tens of thousands of people tell us about the cars they own in the Which? car survey.

Through this survey we learn about a car’s common faults and overall owner satisfaction. Based on the results, we award reliability scores covering three age groups (0-4, 5-9 and 10-15 years). For more on this and our in-depth lab tests, read our article on how we test cars.

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