Kia was the most affordable vehicle brand and Mercedes-Benz the most reliable, according to the 2019 CarMD Vehicle Health Index. Published annually since 2011, the index analyzes “Check Engine” repair and cost data to rank …
• The 10 brands and 100 vehicles least likely to have an illuminated “Check Engine” light.
• The 10 brands and 100 vehicles with the lowest average repair costs.
• The top three vehicles by category.

CarMD found that Mercedes-Benz was the brand least likely to need “Check Engine” repairs, edging out Mitsubishi and Buick, which came in at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Kia, which ranked second last year, became the brand with the lowest average repair cost ($321), followed by Mazda ($332), which ranked first last year, and Hyundai ($333).

A few other highlights from the report …
• Buick, Ford and Kia were the only brands to rank in the Top 10 on both lists.
• Kia swept the list of three most affordable compact vehicles to repair.
• The 2017 Honda CR-V was the vehicle least likely to need a “Check Engine” light-related repair.
• The 2017 Subaru Outback cost the least on average ($59) to repair.

Click here to view a report from CarMD with year-over-year scores and Top 100 vehicle rankings. To compile its index Irvine, CA-based CarMD analyzed data from over 14.40 million model-year 1996 to 2019 vehicles reporting “Check Engine” health between Oct. 1, 2018 and Sept. 30, 2019.