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The most and least reliable cars you can buy

When shopping for a new car, more than half of drivers cite reliability as the top thing they look for in a vehicle. After all, no matter how slick your new car looks, if it breaks down when you need it, you’ve basically got a 4,000-pound paperweight.

With that in mind, Consumer Reports has released its annual list of the most reliable cars you can buy today, as well as the least. These rankings are based on the Annual Reliability Survey. The survey looks at 17 key trouble areas, ranging from brakes that squeak to transmission repairs that fall outside of warranty. They survey 400,000 car owners, who have a combined 640,000 vehicles between them. Their survey found that it was often entirely new models of vehicles or completely redesigned vehicles that came with the most problems. Consumer Reports also identified infotainment systems as a pain point for many drivers as well.

To calculate the score, Consumer Reports weighted the severity of the problems with the vehicle to develop a Predicted Reliability Score. They combined it with test track data, owner satisfaction survey results and safety data to create an Overall Score. These vehicles are the ten highest scoring, and the ten lowest.

If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, here are the cars to consider — and to potentially avoid.

All prices in U.S. dollars.

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