Toyota, Lexus, Honda and Acura lead research in automotive durability

Toyota, Lexus, Honda and Acura respectively occupied the top four positions in the study of cars' ability to reach the 250,000 mile mark, equivalent to more than 400,000 km.

New research by iSeeCars analyzed data on more than 395 million cars, evaluating 33 brands based on the ability of a car to run at least 250,000 miles, equivalent to about 402,000 km. The results show that Japanese brands dominate the leading group.

Toyota is far ahead of the rest

The gap between Toyota and its competitors is quite large. The probability of a Toyota vehicle reaching 250,000 miles is 5.3 percentage points higher than that of a Lexus and 14.3 percentage points higher than the market average. In the popular car group, Toyota also ranked first with a rate of 19.7%, followed by Honda at 13.3%. GMC ranked third but only reached 5.8%, while Mazda reached 5.3%.

Class Car brand Percentage of vehicles that can run at least 250,000 miles (%) 1 Toyota 19.7 2 Lexus 14.4 3 Honda 13.3 4 Acura 9.5 5 GMC 5.8 6 Mazda 5.3 7 Lincoln 4.7 8 RAM 4.2 9 Ford 4.1 10 Cadillac 3.9 11 Chevrolet 3.6 12 Nissan 3.4 13 Tesla 3.3 14 Subaru 2.8 15 Mercedes 2.6

In the luxury car group, Lexus leads with 14.4%, followed by Acura at 9.5%. The gap between the two Japanese brands and the rest is also very large, with Lincoln ranked third with 4.7%, Cadillac 3.9% and Tesla 3.3%.

Notably, only 5 of the 33 brands surveyed had a rate higher than the average of 5.4%. Besides Toyota, Lexus, Honda and Acura, the other brand is GMC.

At the bottom of the scale, Jaguar, MINI and Maserati all have odds rounded down to 0% chance of reaching 250,000 miles. BMW, Audi, Land Rover and Porsche also only reached 0.3-0.5%.

However, iSeeCars notes that the ability to reach the 250,000 mile mark does not necessarily mean the vehicle's durability. Actual lifespan depends on each vehicle model, generation, year of manufacture and how the vehicle owner maintains and uses it. A car model belonging to a brand with a low percentage can still exceed this mark.

The 250,000 mile mark is significantly higher than the typical mileage of a car. Therefore, the study mainly shows trends in the ability of vehicles to maintain durability over very long periods of time, rather than claiming that every vehicle of a brand can achieve this distance.