Braiden Shaw is a CEO, entrepreneur, investor, and business consultant. His social media touts a collective following in the millions. He often talks about cars, too, since they’re a big part of any household’s financial health (or lack thereof). But a recent list of the most reliable car brands just tripped him up.

I’ll be honest: it tripped me up, too.

7 most reliable car brands in 2025

“I have not seen this list, so I’m going to guess them.” He’s pretty confident in his guessing game, too. “I bet I’m going to do pretty good at this.” Shaw remarks before starting.

The first guess lands: Toyota. It’s #2.

Second guess: Honda. It’s on there, of course, but it’s not too high up: #5. I can tell this trips Shaw up.

Next: “I would put Kia on there now,” he says, stressing the “now.” The answer: No.

“Lexus?” Yep. It’s number one for reliable options, and for good reason.

Since Lexus, Toyota, and Honda grace the list, he correctly adds Acura.

Things sort of fall apart after Acura

“Okay, I have to guess my own car,” he says, shrugging his arms. “Even though I don’t necessarily think it’s on the list.”

He offers Ford. Reliable? “Not a chance,” according to this list.

Then, he pitches Volkswagen. No. “Dang it,” he responds. Shaw gets a clue: “Stay in that country, though.”

He asks for another hint: Are these luxury cars? “They’re not supercars…”

Okay, he swings Audi. “No Audi.”

“Oh, wow, this is bad.”

After more hints, the “most reliable” list is revealed in its entirety:

1. Lexus
2. Toyota
3. Mazda
4. Acura
5. Honda
6. Buick
7. BMW

Wait…according to who, now?

Okay. One of the things I absolutely loathe about some of these viral-vibing personal wealth reels (and it’s not just Shaw, by the way) is that they mostly fail to cite the source.

I’m assuming they either don’t think people care about where the information came from (which is a shame) or they know it didn’t come from a credible place.

In this case, I really don’t know. If the list is from Consumer Reports, fine? But without saying where it came from, any expert watching this would struggle to take it as fact without proper context.

Shaw and I agree about one thing, for sure:

BMW doesn’t belong on any list of just 7 “most reliable” car brands

Oddly, I’d almost put VW and Audi ahead of BMW, having driven three Beemer sedans and two Mini Cooper S models. But VWs and Audis need a lot of love, too, once they’ve got some decent mileage on the odometer.

Buick…okay, I might actually believe it belongs somewhere on, like, a long J.D. Power list, in certain cases. Still, though, it’s just not out here enough anymore.

Where’s Volvo, anyway? Subaru?

There’s also an argument for Tesla, but there’s enough going on with individual EV owners that it doesn’t come to mind first, I’ll say that.

In any case, if it were up to me, I’d cut off a number.

Here are my 6 most reliable car brands

Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Acura, Mazda, and Subaru. Done and done.