2023's most reliable company cars revealed

BMW’s eight-year lead as the most reliable car brand has come to an end, as the Munich giant falls two places in this year’s FN50 survey.

It has been displaced by Toyota, which leaps to the top of the table. Audi, meanwhile, retains its place between the two, scoring second place.

Fleet News asked leasing companies to consider the brands and cars they had on fleet over the previous 12 months as part of the research into this year's FN50 report and list the most reliable ones.

Click here to read the full FN50 analysis.

This was based on the average number of days off the road with unplanned mechanical problems (but not including punctures). 

It’s not all bad news for BMW, though.

The 3 Series still ranked above all other models, with the UK’s largest leasing companies awarding it first place as the most reliable car.

Most reliable car brand:

* 2022 position in brackets

Launched in 2018, the G20 3 Series quickly became a favourite among company car drivers and picked up the Best Premium Car trophy for two consecutive years at the Fleet News awards. The 330e variant was the second best-selling plug-in hybrid car, in the UK, in 2022 and is offered in saloon or estate body styles.

The second most reliable car in this year’s survey is - perhaps unsurprisingly - a Toyota. The Corolla hatch climbs the table, having ranked fourth in 2022 and eighth in 2021. It’s an impressive performance for the hybrid model, which launched in 2018 and was updated earlier this year.

Further down the list, Toyota’s C-HR compact SUV holds on to tenth place. This, combined with an improved performance by the brand’s other models, helped to secure the car maker’s lead in this year’s FN50 reliability survey.

Gallery: 2023's most reliable company cars

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Hyundai’s Tucson is a new entrant to the Most Reliable Car ranking. It storms into third place, having not even made the Top 15 last year. The model’s re-launch in 2020 saw it take a step upmarket and introduced a variety of fleet-friendly hybrid and plug-in hybrid engines. With the average FN50 lease contract lasting three years, these figures suggest the majority of Tucson models included in the survey are of the latest generation.

Beneath the Tucson sits the Audi A4. The ageing model has slipped into fourth place, from third last year. It topped the table in 2019 and 2020. The Audi A3 has also suffered a drop this year, falling from seventh to eighth place.

Kia’s Sportage has also performed well this year, placing fifth. The popular SUV shares a platform with the Tucson and its performance enabled Kia to creep into the Top 10 manufacturers list, beneath Hyundai.

Most reliable car model:

*2022 position in brackets

Tesla returned a less impressive performance. The Model 3, which placed second last year after leapfrogging its way up the table from 15th in the year before, moves back down the table into sixth place. Registrations of the Model 3 and the Model Y have been surging, with the latter becoming the UK’s best-selling electric car. The Model Y occupied 14th place, this year, while the brand overall placed seventh.

Further down the table, the Honda Civic climbs two places following the launch of an all-new model last year. The Volvo XC40 drops one place, remaining below the Audi A3, but Volvo overall improved its position to sixth in the manufacturer ranking.

Volkswagen failed to make the Top 10 list with any models this year, after the Golf suffered a fall from sixth to 11th. Its ID models – ID3 and ID4 – appear in the ranking for the first time, occupying 15th and 13th place, respectively. The brand dropped from fourth to fifth overall, in the manufacturer ranking, losing its spot to Mercedes-Benz.

Skoda, one of Volkswagen’s sister brands, suffered a more aggressive fall from seventh last year to 13th in 2023.

Polestar picked up 11th place in the manufacturer list, with the Polestar 2 putting in a strong performance two years in a row and retaining its spot as the 12th most reliable car.