The Honda Accord 2.2 i-DTE rated by Which? Car as the most reliable on the road. Photograph: Simon Stuart-Miller
The Honda Accord is the UK's most reliable new car, and among seven of the top 10 hassle-free motors that come from a Japanese carmaker, according to a report from Which? Car.
The Accord, which sells for just under £20,000 brand new, scored 98.5% in the magazine's survey of motorists, while the Honda Jazz came a close second with a 98.2% reliability rating.
Five other cars from Japanese marques scored more than 94% in the survey, which was based on information from the owners of more than 84,000 vehicles about breakdowns, faults and niggles they had experienced while driving.
At the other end of the scale, the sporty Audi A5 was rated the new car most likely to go wrong, with a 75.8% reliability rating putting it bottom of the 121 models reviewed. Owners of the stylish coupe reported significant problems with its electrics.
Second from bottom of the table was the Ford Galaxy, followed by the much-acclaimed Jaguar XF which scored 78%. The report pointed out that this was bad news for Jaguar as it meant the XF fared even worse than the S-type which it replaced, although that too appeared in the bottom 10.
Electrical systems, which are designed to make cars more efficient, reliable and comfortable, were one of the biggest problem areas identified in the survey.
Although Japanese brands dominated the top 10, several medium-sized models from these firms fell short – the Honda Civic, Nissan Qashqai and Toyota Auris all scored around 87% on reliability when new.
"Owning a reliable car can make the difference between getting your summer holiday off to a flying start and sitting on the hard shoulder of the M6," said Richard Headland, editor of Which? Car.
"Japanese cars in the main seem to run like clockwork, although there are a few exceptions to the rule. It's also encouraging to see good reliability scores for the bestselling Ford Fiesta and other small, economical cars."
A spokesman for Audi said: "Based on the very small sample size of the Which? survey, the reliability score for the A5 represents a total of just seven faults, and Audi has so far sold over 8,000 A5 models in the UK.
"Audi is world renowned for building extremely high quality cars, and in the vast majority of cases very strong reliability scores reflect this. We believe that sample sizes of below 500 cars do not generate useful or workable data, and we therefore do not acknowledge the Which? findings as valid indicators of the level of A5 reliability."
10 most reliable new cars
1 Honda Accord 98.5%
2 Honda Jazz 98.2%
3 Daihatsu Sirion 97.5%
4 Hyundai i30 96.8%
5 Ford Fiesta 96.2%
6. Honda Jazz 95.9%
7 Honda Civic Hybrid 95.7%
8 Citroën C1 95.7%
9 Toyota Prius 95.0%
10 Mazda 3 94.4%
10 least reliable new cars
112 Hyundai Santa Fe 82.2%
113 Jaguar S-type 81.2%
114 Volvo XC90 80.6%
115 Land Rover Freelander 80.1%
116 Ford S-Max 79.9%
117 Land Rover Discovery 79.5%
118 Alfa Romeo 159 79.0%
119 Jaguar XF 78.0%
120 Ford Galaxy 76.3%
121 Audi A5 75.8%
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