Top 10 most reliable student cars As students gear up for a new academic term, a study by Warranty Direct and First Car magazine claims to have revealed the most reliable student-friendy used cars. The study examined city cars and superminis in Warranty Direct's database of 50,000 policies and considered where they ranked in its Reliability Index, which gives scores for rate of failure, average mileage, age and cost of repair. The lower the score, the more reliable the car. Click through this gallery as we countdown the top 10 most reliable cars for students, starting with: Mazda2 Year: 2007- Reliability Index rating: 40 Average repair cost: £325.78