America’s Most Reliable Cars

10. 2010 Subaru Outback
> Overall index rating: 0.111 (tied for 8th best)
> Repair incidents, index rating: 0.168 (22nd best)
> Avg. repair cost: $110.43 (14th lowest)
> Year-to-date model sales: 95,357

Subaru Outbacks are both highly reliable and inexpensive to repair. The average check engine light repair costs just over $110 in a 2010 Outback. The 2010 model year also was rated as extremely safe, according to the NHTSA, which gave the car five stars for front and side crash safety. This year, the Outback has sold especially well, with 95,357 cars sold in the first 10 months of 2012. However, Subarus are not without problems. The make “had a tendency to require the replacement of the catalytic converter,” a problem that accounted for 22% of all check engine light repairs in Subarus of all models. Correcting this problem is especially expensive in a Subaru, costing owners an average of over $930 per repair.

9. 2011 Chevrolet Impala
> Overall index rating: 0.111 (tied for 8th best)
> Repair incidents, index rating: 0.144 (14th best)
> Avg. repair cost: $184.30 (31st lowest)
> Year-to-date model sales: 148,547

The average repair cost of $184.30 for the Chevrolet Impala was on the lower end of the vehicles measured. It was also significantly less than the $290.50 repair average for all General Motor Co. (NYSE: GM) vehicles. J.D. Power and Associates gave the 2011 Impala a “better than most” rating in terms of predicted reliability. However, it only received a rating of “about average” for overall quality and a rating of “the rest,” the lowest given by J.D. Power, for overall performance and design. Sales of the Impala have declined significantly in recent years. Chevrolet sold 171,434 Impalas in 2011, down from 311,128 in 2007.

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8. 2010 Hyundai Sonata
> Overall index rating: 0.111 (tied for 8th best)
> Repair incidents, index rating: 0.112 (4th best)
> Avg. repair cost: $336.30 (19th highest)
> Year-to-date model sales: 192,119

In 2012, Hyundai bolstered its reputation when CarMD named it the second-most dependable manufacturer, behind Toyota. Among the reasons for the high rating was the low cost of an average repair for all Hyundai models — just $272. The manufacturer’s best rated car, the 2010 Hyundai Sonata, required repairs less often than all but three other car models. This year, the Hyundai Sonata is one of the nation’s best-selling cars, with more than 192,000 sold in the first 10 months of 2012. However, the 2010 Sonata did receive less-than-stellar ratings from J.D. Power, which rated the model “about average” for quality, as well as for performance and design. Sales of the Sonata may be hurt after the backlash from Hyundai’s admission that it misrepresented fuel economy of more than 100,000 of its vehicles.

7. 2007 Lexus ES 350
> Overall index rating: 0.106
> Repair incidents, index rating: 0.101 (3rd best)
> Avg. repair cost: $377.71 (15th highest)
> Year-to-date model sales: 42,105

In 2011, numerous luxury brands underperformed their parent brands in reliability, but not all. The Lexus brand was rated as more dependable than its parent brand and contributed to Toyota being the top-ranked manufacturer. In the luxury category, no model was as well-rated for reliability as the 2007 Lexus ES 350. Only two other cars, Toyota’s 2010 Corolla and 2008 Yaris, required fewer trips to the mechanic last year. Older ES 350 model years were particularly successful for Lexus, which reported more than 82,000 unit sales in 2007 and more than 64,000 unit sales in 2008 — far more than the 40,873 sold in 2011, when sales were even lower than they have been through the first 10 months of 2012.

6. 2010 Subaru Forester
> Overall index rating: 0.099 (tied for 5th best)
> Repair incidents, index rating: 0.148 (16th best)
> Avg. repair cost: $116.33 (15th lowest)
> Year-to-date model sales: 61,880

Few cars are as inexpensive to repair as the 2010 Subaru Forester, which had an average repair cost of $116.33 — one of the lowest figures for any car on the road today. Additionally, only four other car models received better ratings for repair costs from CarMD’s proprietary index. And in the category of wagon/crossover SUV, CarMD rated the 2010 Forester as the most reliable car produced between the model years 2002 and 2012. The second- and third-place models were Subaru’s 2010 Outback and 2011 Forester. Aside from being reliable, the 2010 Forester was found to be safe as well; the model received five-star ratings in frontal and side crash tests from the NHTSA.