The Kia Picanto has been named the most reliable new car by Which? Car

The Kia Picanto has been named the most reliable new car says Which? Car. The survey looked at over 26,000 new cars, and found the least dependable was a 4x4, the Land Rover Discovery 3.

The Kia Picanto is the most dependable car of 2010, clocking up very few faults and earning a reliability score of 98.1%.

The Mazda3 is in second place with 97.6%. Its safety and performance are first class too, making it a Which? Best Buy. A supermini, the Daihatsu Sirion, and the Honda Insight, a petrol-electric hybrid, are equal third with 97%.

Japanese cars dominate the field, with seven cars in the top 10. Toyota retains its excellent reliability rating overall in spite of its recall woes earlier this year. Star performer is the iQ (5th, 96.1%) with very few cars suffering any problems at all, while the Prius (7th, 95.4%) also proves to be highly dependable.

Bottom of the table is the Land Rover Discovery 3 (67.8%), the only car in the survey to dip below 70%. The Land Rover Range Rover Sport (75.8%) also makes the bottom 10.

Other big car losers include the Hyundai Santa Fe (75.0%), which at least comes with a decent five year warranty; Jaguar S-type (76%); Citroën C4 Grand Picasso (77.4%), the least reliable people carrier; Volvo S80 (77.6%); and Ford S-Max (77.6%).

Peter Vicary-Smith, Chief Executive, Which?, says: “You don’t expect a new car to go wrong – but our rigorous research shows there’s a big difference between the best and worst. Some small cars, particularly Korean and Japanese superminis, run like clockwork. Whereas some bigger cars, which you might expect to be more robust, aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”

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