Toyota was the brand least likely to need “Check Engine” repairs over the past year, according to the CarMD Vehicle Health Index, besting Acura and Hyundai, which came in at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively.

Irvine, CA-based CarMD Corp. studied data from more than 5.60 million vehicles from a variety of sources to identify the makes least likely to need “Check Engine” repairs. To rank these makes, the company used a formula to account for those with the lowest percentage of repair incidents per percentage of the vehicle population. Based on this data, an index frequency score was assigned. The lower the score, the higher the vehicle make ranking.

CarMD found the following brands were the least likely to need a “Check Engine” repair over the past year …
1.  Toyota
2.  Acura
3.  Hyundai
4.  Honda
5.  Mitsubishi
6.  Subaru
7.  Buick
8.  Mercedes-Benz
9.  Lexus
10.  Nissan

The following vehicle makes had the lowest average “Check Engine” light-related repair costs in 2018 …
1.  Mazda – $286
2.  Kia – $320
3.  Dodge – $326
4.  Hyundai – $328
5.  Chrysler – $329
6.  Jeep – $339
7.  Chevrolet – $341
8.  Volkswagen – $358
9.  Honda – $427
10.  Toyota – $462

The following vehicles had the lowest “Check Engine” light-related repair frequency this past year …
1.  2016 Audi Q5
2.  2017 Honda Civic
3.  2017 Subaru Crosstrek
4.  2017 Honda CR-V
5.  2017 Honda HR-V
6.  2017 GMC Acadia
7.  2015 Subaru Forester
8.  2016 Honda CR-V
9.  2016 Honda Civic
10.  2016 Volvo XC-90

The following vehicles had the lowest average repair cost this past year …
1.  2017 Hyundai Tucson – $67
2.  2017 Hyundai Accent – $69
3.  2016 Kia Rio – $70
4.  2014 Toyota Prius C – $83
5.  2017 Mitsubishi Mirage – $84
6.  2017 Kia Soul – $88
7.  2016 Kia Forte – $90
8.  2016 Hyundai Tucson – $91
9.  2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport – $92
10.  2017 Toyota 4Runner – $107

The most common and affordable repair on nine out of 10 of the most affordable vehicles was to inspect or replace a loose, damaged or missing gas cap. The exception was the 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage, which was most frequently diagnosed with a faulty or incorrectly installed vacuum hose.

Details on the most common repair for each of these vehicles — as well as the best vehicles in each category and the vehicles with the most frequent/most expensive repairs — are available in the full 2018 report.

According to CarMD, it analyzed data from over 5.60 million in-use vehicles, model years 1996 to 2018, between Oct. 1, 2017 and Sept. 30, 2018.