Buying a family car is a big decision.
It will need to be spacious enough for the number of kids you transport, have a capacious boot for hauling pushchairs, a fortnight’s worth of groceries along with other day-to-day needs of family life, and have plenty of kit to keep everyone occupied.
However, reliability is arguably as important – if not most – as all of the requirements listed above.
The last thing any parent needs is to be stranded at the roadside with a car full of children onboard or to incur unexpected – and often expensive – vehicle repair bills.
Fortunately, What Car? conducts an annual reliability survey of almost 30,000 drivers in which it ranks the most and least dependable motors by category – including family motors.
This information has been shared with This is Money so we can tell you which models up to five years old – so either available in showrooms or as nearly-new used motors – can be relied upon most.
And we’ve also included the three family cars with the lowest reliability scores.
MOST RELIABLE FAMILY CARS
10. Ford Focus petrol (2018-2024)
Reliability score: 94.9%
Ford is due to kill off the Focus shortly as it embarks on refreshing its line-up for an electric future. The last Focus generation (with petrol engines) is proving relatively reliable
The Ford Focus is a well established fixture on UK roads. It remains one of the most common family-size hatchbacks in the country. However, numbers will start to dwindle when Ford culls the Focus next year as it switches attention to a new range of electric vehicles.
The last generation Focus performs more than adequately in terms of reliability – if you choose one with a petrol engine. Just 9 per cent of owners of these cars said they had developed a fault in the previous 24 months. Interestingly, a third of diesels had at least one issue over the same period.
The most common faults are linked to the 12-volt battery, bodywork and non-engine electrical systems, which includes the sat-nav and infotainment system. None of these faults made the cars undrivable, though more than half of petrol Focuses were off the road being repaired for over a week. Repairs were all covered under warranty at no cost to owners.
9. Mini Clubman (2015-2024)
Reliability score: 95.5%
The Mini Clubman isn’t the biggest family car, but it does have a decent size boot. Just 15% of owners of these cars said the had to deal with a fault in the last 24 months
Some 15 per cent of Mini Clubman drivers said their cars had developed problems over the last two years. However, every instance of faults were bodywork problems.
Every Clubman with bodywork issues were fixed in less than a week – two thirds of them back with their owners within a day.
Mini warranties covered repair costs for a third of owners. Models that were outside of three-year, unlimited mileage warranty period cost drivers between £50 and £500 in garage receipts.
8. Kia XCeed (2019-present)
Reliability score: 95.6%
The Kia XCeed is ranked the eighth most dependable family car, though there were issued reported linked to the 12-volt battery and sat-nav/infotainment screen
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Like the Mini Clubman, the most common problems with Kia XCeeds were related to the bodywork. This was an issue for 21 per cent of owners who reported a fault with their car. There were also issues are the 12-volt battery and sat-nav/infotainment system, though in smaller volumes.
All cars were fixed in less than a week and a third of them were in and out of workshops in less than 24 hours.
Despite every XCeed being within Kia’s seven-year warranty period, this covered the repair costs of just two thirds of cars with faults. The remaining owners had to stump up to £200 to get their cars fixed.
7. Citroen C4 (2020-present)
Reliability score: 96.2%
Some 17% of owners of Citroen C4s said they had encountered faults with their cars in the previous 24 month. Electrical gremlins were the most common issues
Citroen hasn’t always had the greatest record for reliability, but the current C4 model is proving to be a fairly dependable family workhorse.
Some 17 per cent of owners of the French hatchbacks said they had encountered faults with their cars in the previous 24 months, with electrical issues – including air-con and sat-nav/infotainment system gremlins – the main headaches.
Half of C4s needing to go into a garage to be fixed were in workshops for over a week, which slightly weighed on the model’s score. That said, no owners were left out of pocket with every instance of remedial work carried out under warranty.
6. Toyota Corolla (2018-present)
Reliability score: 96.4%
The Toyota Corolla, which is produced in the UK, is sixth in the list of the most dependable family motors up to 5 years old
While Citroen’s reliability track record over the years might have a few holes in it, Toyota’s doesn’t. It has been a perennial top scorer in terms of dependability, and the Burnaston-built Corolla family hatch is no different.
Just 15 per cent of Corolla owners said their cars had suffered a fault in the previous two years. These were either electrical or bodywork problems, and the odd 12-volt battery issue.
With Toyota’s warranty only covering models for the first three years, some older examples with problems cost their owners. While 84% of cars were fixed for free under warranty, the rest faced repair bills – though never exceeding £200. What pushed the Corolla’s reliability score down was the fact that almost a third with faults were rendered undriveable – and 28 per cent were off the road for over a week being fixed.
How are the reliability scores calculated?
In 2024, What Car? received feedback from 29,967 owners about the vehicles they drive. Each motorist was asked about faults – if any – their cars had suffered in the previous 24 months.
In instances where the owner said their car had suffered a problem, they were asked how much the fault had cost to repair and how long the motor was off the road being fixed. This data was then used to calculate a reliability rating. In total, reliability scores for 199 different models across 31 brands have been created.
The ratings are only for cars up to five years old – those dating back to 2019.
The feedback from drivers is also used to provide more detail to potential buyers about the most common faults and how much the repair bill for their car was over the two-year period.
5. Hyundai Ioniq hybrid (2016-2022)
Reliability score: 96.5%
The hybrid variants of the Ioniq hatchback are outperforming the fully-electric versions
