Most reliable car brands

Car brands ranked by reliability

Every car brand we have enough NHTSA data to score, ranked by its average ForCar Reliability Score. Click a brand for its full model lineup, recalls and safety — or open a specific model for its score by year.

ForCar Reliability Score from NHTSA safety, recall frequency and complaint severity. Brands need real crash-test and recall coverage to qualify — low-volume marques without NHTSA testing are listed A–Z below but not ranked.

Safest car brands

Car brands by average NHTSA overall crash-test rating across their tested models (5★ is best). Open a brand to see which of its models earned a 5-Star Safety rating.

Average of each model's best NHTSA overall 5-Star Safety rating. Source: NHTSA NCAP. Only brands with multiple crash-tested models are shown.

Car brands with the most recalls

Total NHTSA recall campaigns recorded across each brand's lineup. Higher counts usually track larger, older line-ups — not necessarily worse vehicles. Open a brand to see recalls by model and year, and the free dealer fix.

Recall counts are absolute across all tracked years — a brand with more models and decades of history naturally accrues more. Compare per-model on each brand page. Source: NHTSA.

Most fuel-efficient car brands

Car brands by average EPA combined MPG (or MPGe for electrics) across their rated models — EV and hybrid-heavy line-ups lead. Open a brand for its most efficient models.

Average EPA combined rating across each brand's models (electrics counted as MPGe). Source: EPA fueleconomy.gov.

Electric & hybrid car brands

33 brands offer an electric, plug-in or fuel-cell model and 37 offer a hybrid in the line-ups we track. Click any brand for its electrified models, range and MPGe by year.

Electric & plug-in brands 33

Hybrid brands 37

Electrified variants from EPA fueleconomy.gov powertrain data. A brand may offer gas, hybrid and electric versions of the same model across years.

All car brands 102

Every brand we track, grouped by vehicle type. The number is how many models we cover; open a brand for its VIN decoder, recalls, reliability and safety.

Cars & SUVs 64

Trucks 11

Motorcycles 17

RVs & Campers 10

VIN prefix codes by brand (WMI)

The first 3 characters of any VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier (WMI) — they encode the brand, country and vehicle type. Common WMI prefixes for major makes:

For example, a VIN starting 4T1 is a Toyota, 1G1 a Chevrolet, and WBA a BMW. To identify a brand from a VIN, read the first 3 characters and match them here — or paste the full VIN into the decoder above. The VIN is on the lower-left windshield, the driver's door jamb, or your registration.