Chevrolet has come top in Warranty Direct’s latest reliability index based on the number of warranty claims, cost of repair, mileage and age of its cars.

The UK reliability index takes into account all factors of a repair, the cost of the parts and the frequency of failures.

The average of all cars is 100 which means that if the figure for the car you are looking at has a higher than average index (118) it indicates that that car is less reliable than the average, if however there is a lower than average index (60) the reliability is better.

Chevrolet took top place with a rating of 20. Honda came second with a rating of 30 and Suzuki came third with a rating of 41.

Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Land Rover were the worst performing brands with ratings of 169, 187 and 206 respectively.

Chevrolet also tops the charts for repair costs – at £195.14 per repair claim; Chevrolet beats its nearest rival, Fiat, by over £40. To make it a hat trick, Chevrolet also claims the lowest ‘time-off-the-road’ in terms of repairs, with an average of 1.41 days per claim to repair. Second placed Suzuki’s score is 1.67.

Duncan McClure-Fisher, Warranty Direct’s managing director, said: “Honda has held the top spot in our overall manufacturer’s reliability table for many months, so for Chevrolet to knock them off their perch is a major coup.

“You have to bear in mind that we do not hold as many policies on Chevrolets as Honda models but, nevertheless, the data we do have clearly shows that Chevrolets are trustworthy vehicles.”

Chevrolet offers customers a “Five Year Promise” aftersales product on each of its news cars which includes a five year warranty, roadside assistance, servicing, MoT insurance and vehicle health checks.

Mark Terry, Chevrolet UK managing director, said: “Our dealers are clearly making an effort to minimise the disruption of any repairs to our customers, and helping them keep their cost down at a time when we’re all watching our pennies.”