NEW YORK, Dec 16 — New data from CarMD ranks Toyota as the marque least likely to have a ‘check engine’ light flashing on its dashboard and reveals that if you drive a Hyundai, it’s going to cost the least to repair.

The CarMD 2016 Vehicle Health Index is based on repairs carried out in the US over the past 12 months made on cars built between 1996 and 2016. And as such provides a comprehensive picture of individual make and model reliability as well as average repair costs.

Based on this approach, the top automotive brand for reliability is Toyota, whose cars had the lowest repair frequency over the past year. Honda is in second place and an all-Japanese top three is rounded off by Nissan.

Audi is the highest ranked European marque (fourth place) just ahead of parent company Volkswagen in fifth. Three US brands have made the top 10. Unfortunately, the highest ranked is Mercury in seventh place (one behind BMW), a brand that was completely wound down in 2011. Nevertheless it ranks higher than Buick (eighth) and Jeep (ninth). Hyundai finishes off the top 10 but also comes first in the CarMD list of car brands with the lowest average repair costs.

Mazda is the second cheapest brand in terms of repairs and Kia is in third place. There is good news for owners of American cars though. By and large they dominate the remainder of the affordable repairs list taking every place from fourth to 10th. Chevrolet is the cheapest US brand when it comes to repairs, followed by Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, GMC, Ford and Buick.

“This continues to be the only annual Index to rank makes and models using actual in-use check engine failures and recommended repair costs, which has been shown to help make vehicle manufacturers, parts providers, owners and used car buyers aware of trends to help minimize repair costs and maximize reliability,” said Ieon C. Chen, CEO of CarMD.com Corp.

As for individual models, the 2012 Honda CR-V is currently the most reliable car on US roads, followed by the 2014 Toyota Tundra, 2015 Toyota Camry, 2015 Toyota Corolla and the 2014 Ford Explorer.

According to CarMD at any one time, 10 per cent of all cars on the road in the US have the ‘check engine’ warning light flashing on their dashboards. What’s more, the vehicle most likely to have its check engine light flashing is a Model Year 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck. — AFP-Relanews