The car brands most likely to outlast your payments, ranked

As car prices continue to rise, so do expectations. Big bucks should mean big value, right? You want your ride to perform and endure.

A study from iSeeCars.com found that four brands – Toyota, Lexus, Honda and Acura, in that order – have a solid edge. Of course, Lexus is Toyota’s luxury brand and Acura fills that role at Honda, so connections are there.

The four brands’ vehicles are more likely to hit 250,000 miles than the industry average. In fact, Toyota vehicles are 3.7 times as likely as the average to manage that milestone, according to the study, which based its assessment on data for 174 million vehicles. The results cover 32 different brands.

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Your chance of hitting 250,000 miles in a Toyota is almost 18%. Compare that with the bottom three brands – Jaguar, Mini and Maserati. Your chances of hitting 250,000 miles with one of their vehicles, according to the study, are basically nil. That doesn't mean those cars are incapable of hitting such high mileage, just that the likelihood didn't register in the data, and of course, it also means that even in a Toyota it's still a feat.

Why Toyota and Honda vehicles last longer

Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars, said the findings weren’t exactly surprising, but they might be more extreme than one would expect.

He compared the impact of the four high-performing brands to the smart kids in school throwing off the bell curve.

“It’s freaky when you think that there’s 32 brands and only four of them are above average and 28 are below,” he said.

The study showcased the reputation for reliability that Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda have long enjoyed. There’s no problem finding story links online discussing why Toyota cars, for instance, are so reliable.

Brauer noted that the companies aren’t flawless, but they do focus on engineering excellence.

“They’re engineering them well from the start, and they’re building them well after they’re done with the engineering,” he said of the companies’ vehicles.

Fans of U.S. automakers can perhaps take some solace in knowing that GMC, Tesla, Chevrolet and Cadillac were the best of the rest of the brands in the study.

GMC and Chevrolet make sense, Brauer said, because they produce trucks and large SUVs that probably get a lot of use. Tesla vehicles and probably other electric vehicles should also have good reliability, he noted, because they have fewer parts that could go bad.

Cars that can manage high mileage numbers offer a key value boost in an era of pricey new vehicles.

How the study ranked all 32 car brands

Here's the list of where brands ranked in the likelihood their vehicles could reach 250,000 miles, according to the iSeeCars.com study released in 2025. The top four were above average.

• Toyota
• Lexus
• Honda
• Acura
• GMC
• Tesla
• Chevrolet
• Cadillac
• Mazda
• Ram
• Lincoln
• Ford
• Dodge
• Nissan
• Subaru
• Volvo
• Infiniti
• Mercedes-Benz
• Jeep
• Mitsubishi
• Kia
• Hyundai
• Buick
• Porsche
• Chrysler
• BMW
• Volkswagen
• Audi
• Land Rover
• Jaguar
• Mini
• Maserati

Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press. If you've got a tip or suggestion, contact him at [email protected]. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.