This Has Been The Least Recalled Car Brand For More Than Ten Years

Consumer preferences when buying a car are shifting. The sixth annual U.S. Consumer Insights Report, published in 2024 by CarGurus, found that 41% of buyers consider reliability a key factor in selecting their new car (up from 35% in 2022), followed by MSRP and running costs. An increasing number of buyers want a more reliable car, but is a car still reliable if its recalls are more frequent than its oil changes?

German legacy automaker Mercedes-Benz leads the list of the least recalled car brands in the latest iSeeCars study, with nine models ranked among the least recalled cars in the study. Toyota and Lexus are not too far behind. Consider us surprised, since Consumer Reports has ranked Mercedes-Benz 19th on its current brand reliability ratings. That's not a typo; Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Mazda, and Audi all rank higher than Mercedes in Consumer Reports' reliability survey.

We've already reported that Toyota overtook Subaru as Consumer Reports' most reliable brand in 2026 after the latter flirted with the top spot the previous year. However, the Subaru Ascent is included among the 25 most recalled cars in the same iSeeCars study, and so are the Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport. This doesn't mean that Subaru and Volkswagen are less reliable than Mercedes-Benz, but a Subaru or Volkswagen owner can expect more factory recalls on average.

Mercedes-Benz's topping the least recalled car brand rankings is not exactly breaking news. The brand has been leading the least recalled car charts for the past decade. In 2014, a similar iSeeCars study examining recall rates spanning nearly 30 years back showed that Mercedes-Benz had a recall rate of just 0.41, which translates to 41 recalled vehicles for every 100 cars sold. In the same study, Mazda ranked second to Mercedes, with General Motors, Nissan, and Subaru rounding up the top five.

Things didn't change much in 2026. The Mercedes-Benz CLA, GLA, and GLC are in the top 10 of the 33 least recalled vehicles in the latest iSeeCars study. On the other hand, Tesla gains the distinction of being the most recalled car brand, with the Model Y, Model 3, Model X, and Model S all in the top five cars with the most safety recalls. Then again, the data included over-the-air (OTA) updates that, in most cases, don't require dealership visits.

As for the automaker with the most recalls, Ford is currently leading the way with 152 in 2025 – a record-setting year for the brand – but it isn't done yet. The year 2026 is poised to be another record-breaker for Ford as the brand has already recalled around 1.74 million vehicles to fix two backup camera issues. It coincides with the Ford F-150 being in the top 10 car models with the most safety recalls, as owners can expect their trucks to be recalled 4.42 times the average. Meanwhile, the Porsche Panamera tops the charts as the most recalled vehicle in the study, with the Macan and Cayenne also included in the top 10.