TrueDelta: Toyota Prius is the most reliable new car, Jaguar XF is the least reliable

The 2008 Toyota Prius needed the fewest
dealer visits in TrueDelta's reliability survey.

Fewer owners of Toyota's Prius hybrid needed to take their cars to the dealer for anything but routine maintenance, according to the results of the TrueDelta.com reliability survey released today. 

The 2008 Prius averaged five dealer trips per 100 vehicles. In contrast, the worst-performing new vehicle in the survey -- the 2009 Jaguar XF -- required 159 dealer trips per 100 vehicles.

By the end of September, nine out of the 26 XF owners surveyed by TrueDelta already needed repairs on the $50,000 luxury sports sedan that went on sale this spring, compared to two of 74 owners of the 2008 Prius. 

The average 2008 model had a problem rate of around 60 repairs per 100 vehicles, TrueDelta estimates. 

In comparison to the oft-cited Consumer Reports reliability survey, participants in the TrueDelta research "panel" sign up and provide the year, make, and model of their cars once, and are surveyed throughout the year. TrueDelta says this reduces the problem of people only filling out the reliability surveys when they have a complaint to report and allows for information to be fresher.

Also unlike Consumer Reports, TrueDelta provides numerical data and a listing of each problem that occurred in a surveyed vehicle.

But also unlike Consumer Reports, TrueDelta does not have data on 1.4 million cars. 36,000 cars are registered in the TrueDelta panel, allowing the organization to report reliability data on only a relative handful of cars, whereas Consumer Reports reports data on almost every year-make-model combination going back 10 years. TrueDelta also reports reliability based on a minimum sample size of 25 vehicles rather than Consumer Reports's 100. 

TrueDelta data can neither confirm nor deny Consumer Reports data that calls the Scion xD subcompact hatchback the most reliable new vehicle, as only 16 owners responded to the TrueDelta survey. And Consumer Reports offers no data on the Jaguar XF because they conducted their most recent survey just as the car was going on sale. 

Sign up to participate in the TrueDelta reliability survey on their web site (link below). You'll need to spend a few minutes per year answering e-mail surveys, and car buyers will be able to benefit from the information you provide.