Customers may assume that the cars with the most reliability are Toyotas and Hondas, but that isn’t necessarily so. There are also plenty of cars from American automakers that either have good or great reliability ratings. Here’s a look at the most reliable American cars, according to a study by iSeeCars.

How the study was done

Reliability is a difficult thing to measure. There are many ways to do it, and they can range from looking at Consumer Reports’ reliability scores to reading the reviews of popular car review sites like Edmunds. What iSeeCars did was simpler, though. The research team at iSeeCars looked at the almost 14 million used cars that were sold in 2019 from the 1981 to 2018 model years.

Of those nearly 14 million used cars that were sold, iSeeCars did the math and found out which cars were still driving after logging over 200,000 miles. If a car was able to still work after 200,000 miles, then iSeeCars considered it a reliable one. 

On top of that, since this particular study is only looking at cars from American companies, only the cars from the companies that are owned by Ford and GM counted. This means that brands such as Cadillac counts, while brands such as Ram doesn’t count, as Chrysler, which owns Ram, has merged with the foreign company, Fiat Motors. 

The Chevy Impala was the most reliable American car

As the iSeeCars study showed, the Chevy Impala took first place in terms of its reliability rating for American sedans. iSeeCars says that 1.7% of all the Impalas that were on the market had over 200,000 miles on their odometers. While 1.7% may seem like a small number, iSeeCars mentions that the Impala’s 1.7% is three times higher than the average score for the average sedan.

iSeeCars also mentions that other car review sites, such as Consumer Reports, have also praised the Impala’s reliability. It makes a lot of sense that the Impala is so reliable, as Chevy uses the Impala for NASCAR and a reliable car is very necessary for such an extreme and demanding sport. 

While the Impala, which starts at about $31,600, is a great reliable car, it isn’t doing too well in terms of sales, according to iSeeCars. iSeeCars says that the Impala’s “execution” is coming soon, likely due to the decline of sedan sales in general in the U.S. compared to truck and SUV sales.

The Ford Taurus was a close second place

In second place, according to iSeeCars, was the Ford Taurus. iSeeCars says that 1.6% of all the Tauruses that were on the market had over 200,000 miles on their odometers. This was significantly more than the average score for the average sedan, which iSeeCars says was only 0.6%. 

That said, just like the Impala, the Taurus isn’t doing too well in terms of sales. Unlike the Impala though, Ford has already gone ahead and pulled the plug on the Taurus, and iSeeCars says that the 2019 model year of the Taurus is the last model year for this great American sedan. This again reflects automakers moving away from making sedans and towards making SUVs and trucks.

While Ford will not be making any new models for the Taurus for now, the roughly $28,000 sedan is still a great car to own, as its reliability rating proves. Like iSeeCars mentioned, the Taurus is one of those cars that seems to be doing well after 10 years of ownership, and that type of long term commitment is still a valuable thing to find in a car.