Reliability survey details UK’s most and least reliable used car manufacturers

In a reliability league table of 37 car manufacturers compiled by What Car? and Warranty Direct, the who’s who of luxury car makers including Bentley and Porsche have bottomed out with Honda topping the charts as the most reliable with the Japanese car maker topping the table for the ninth year running.

The survey analysed 50,000 live Warranty Direct policies on three to eight-year-old vehicles wherein Japanese and South Korean manufacturers dominated the annual study of the most reliable brands, with Suzuki and Toyota claiming second and third place. The table analyses the reliability of thousands of cars, from three to eight-years-old, using a formula that into account failure rates, age, mileage and cost of repair.

What Car? editor Jim Holder said: “Honda’s success in the reliability index is chiefly down to low failure rates. But, when things do go wrong, the cars are also relatively cheap to fix.”

“Reliability is always one of the key attributes buyers look for when considering a used car purchase, so manufacturers that consistently demonstrate durability will always do well with the consumer”, Holder added.

Manufacturers including Chevrolet, Ford, Skoda, Peugeot and Fiat managed to find a place in the top 10, but the luxury car makers didn’t fare well with the survey finding that Bentley and Porsche cars are the most likely to break down, with 93 per cent of Bentleys on Warranty Direct’s books suffering a problem each year, making it Britain’s least dependable car maker.

Overall, the most reliable models were the Honda Jazz and the Mitsubishi Lancer, both of which also had reasonable average repair costs. The least reliable model is the Audi RS6, but the mighty Subaru Impreza is the most costly to fix, with an eye-watering average repair bill of £1635.70, What Car? revealed in its report.

The study also found that electrical faults are the most common across all cars, acting as the catalyst which sends almost a quarter (22.34 per cent) of vehicles to the garage. Axle and suspension faults are also common, affecting 22 per cent of cars. Air conditioning is the cause of least concern to motorists, being reported by a minimal 3 per cent of owners.

Here is the chart showing the ranking of each manufacturer:
The full results were as follows:

1 Honda
2 Suzuki
3 Toyota
4= Chevrolet
4= Mazda
5 Ford
6 Lexus
7 Skoda
8= Hyundai
8= Nissan
8= Subaru
9= Daewoo
9= Peugeot
10 Fiat
11 Citroen
12 Smart
13 Mitsubishi
14 Kia
15 Vauxhall
16 Seat
17 Renault
18 Mini
19 Volkswagen
20 Rover
21 Volvo
22 Saab
23= BMW
23= MG
24 Jaguar
26 SsangYong
26 Mercedes-Benz
27 Chrysler
28 Audi
29 Jeep
30 Alfa Romeo
31 Land Rover
32 Porsche
33 Bentley

Ravi