Reliability by brand cars 1 to 4 years old

[Dis86]

Did you previously recommend German brands to people on the basis of reliability? It's been this way for decades. Even Mercedes famously reliable period pre-1990s wasn't actually that reliable in reality.

No no, they were just much more reliable than any British or American offerings at the time!

 

[chaparral]

No no, they were just much more reliable than any British or American offerings at the time!

Or French crap

I had 2 Renaults and I think never again

 

[Nasher]

No no, they were just much more reliable than any British or American offerings at the time!

We seem to do ok engine reliability, but not much else lol. A friend bought an oldish Jag recently, Literally nothing works on it except the engine. No point trying to fix it because it's like fault whack-a-mole. Can't imagine how much fun it will be when the EVs age

 

[ahenners]

But how much less in reality is there to go wrong on an Octavia than a Leon, than a Golf than an A3?

Sure there are a few extra toys as you go up (though perhaps not as many as people might assume these days) but underneath the mechanicals of these cars don't differ all that much.

I'm not convinced a Skoda is inherently more reliable than an Audi, when compared to the likelihood an Audi owner is going to take his car back to Audi to sort a funny noise that the Skoda owner just ignores.

In your example there probably isn't much difference between those models because they all share the same platform and engines etc.

But as you start going up the range for Skoda and Seat, they are still the same MQB platform (albeit stretched), with transverse engines, nothing more than 4 cylinders, only haldex if 4wd etc. Inherently no more complex than some of the lesser models.

Whereas up the range in VW and Audi means different platforms not just MQB, transverse and longitudinal engines, 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines, haldex and torsen 4wd systems, and then generally more advanced and newer tech that is less time proven. As a brand they both offer more complex models than their non-german cousins.

As someone else pointed out though, be interesting to see how use cases and mileage skews those figures.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Nvm

 

[Nasher]

In your example there probably isn't much difference between those models because they all share the same platform and engines etc.

But as you start going up the range for Skoda and Seat, they are still the same MQB platform (albeit stretched), with transverse engines, nothing more than 4 cylinders, only haldex if 4wd etc. Inherently no more complex than some of the lesser models.

Whereas up the range in VW and Audi means different platforms not just MQB, transverse and longitudinal engines, 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engines, haldex and torsen 4wd systems, and then generally more advanced and newer tech that is less time proven. As a brand they both offer more complex models than their non-german cousins.

As someone else pointed out though, be interesting to see how use cases and mileage skews those figures.

As you go up the range they have more power also, but using the same internals.

The emissions "fix" might have had something to do with it too. Some say it's made the engines run on the lean side, which is always risky.

 

[jpaul]

was going to say I wouldn't trust what car(or hifi) magasine ... seems JD power are in the UK game too

a bit more divisive https://europe.jdpower.com/press-releases/2019-uk-vehicle-dependability-study
than the few % difference of what car sample still small though.

albeit in USA https://www.autoblog.com/2018/02/14/jd-power-dependability-survey-2018/

The bottom line here is this: J.D. Power, which probably irrelevantly is owned now by Chinese investors, does a lot of surveys and hands out a lot of awards (so many that they must have their own bronze-and-lucite manufacturing facility). CR has a robust car testing and rating program. There are many sources for automotive information, including Autoblog's reviews and buyer pages. It's all good: Rankings and lists are informative and fun to read. Just cross-reference your information.

 

[Nasher]

There is no way Peugeot tops the charts for anything. Except the brand which makes the most amount of undesirable cars

 

[jigger]

Land Rover is making me very sad. I think when we give the EU the boot we should bring Land Rover home.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Surprised to see Audi that high.

 

[adam cool dude]

The VW group always tells the tale of these...

Most components shared across platforms with some cost saving going on further down the brands you go.

Yet this would have us believe that the reliability stats favour the cheapest brands? I don't buy it.

I think there is simply more acceptance of minor faults on cheaper cars.

It could be down to management. Age of factories and how they are run. You only have to look at formula one teams to see how one minute they are at the top and the next at the bottom. It's not unreasonable to believe that Skoda as a company is ran better than say Audi at this moment in time. It could be simply Skoda as business is a lot easier to run as it is simpler with cars, doesn't have a motorsport arm to worry about like Audi etc.

 

[Stephanie Peterson]

There is no way Peugeot tops the charts for anything. Except the brand which makes the most amount of undesirable cars

This... there is no flipping way a French car is going to come anywhere near the sharp end of a reliability table, crikey that JD list is utter junk... Mazda and toyota below average with vauxhall up there as well.
LMAO right then..

 

[Calm]

It could be down to management. Age of factories and how they are run. You only have to look at formula one teams to see how one minute they are at the top and the next at the bottom. It's not unreasonable to believe that Skoda as a company is ran better than say Audi at this moment in time. It could be simply Skoda as business is a lot easier to run as it is simpler with cars, doesn't have a motorsport arm to worry about like Audi etc.

Couldn't a lot of this also be attributed to the drivers.

A1, A3, Polos and Golfs are far more popular with the kiddys than Fabias and Ibizas. And as insurance companies will attest, the kiddies are far more likely to break their toys.

There is no way Peugeot tops the charts for anything. Except the brand which makes the most amount of undesirable cars

True, but I think the new 208 actually look surprisingly good!

 

[Jonnycoupe]

As well as Honda and Nissan, surprised to see Volvo low down there too, I always thought they had the reputation for reliability

You just proved your own point; a reputation for reliability.

 

[Amp34]

That's not how statistics work though? If there's only a 1000 Tesla owners in the UK compared to a 100,000 Skoda owners, only 28 Tesla responses is perfectly valid if only 2800 Skoda owners responded also. It might not be 100% reflective of reality, but it doesn't invalidate the results so long as the overall sample is normally distributed.

In fact it's likely that much less than 0.3% of owners of other cars responded to this survey, because people just don't respond in general, to any survey.

You’re talking about Tesla here. Everything negative is a big oil/MSM conspiracy.

There’s massive criticism against Consumer Reports (Which! equivalent in the US) because it also has non positive reliability ratings for most Tesla cars.

Rather than seeing it for what it may actually be, there’s always an excuse. No point arguing as it’s a bit like arguing with a 2000s Apple owner...

It’s not an issue with Electric Cars, just that’s Tesla is a young company and learning as they go. It’s usually more to do with small faults on non drivetrain parts of the car.

These results are always like questioning the length of a piece of string though. One model from one manufacturer may be significantly more reliable than another, so Brand reliability is less relevant than model specific reliability anyway.

 

[adam cool dude]

This... there is no flipping way a French car is going to come anywhere near the sharp end of a reliability table, crikey that JD list is utter junk... Mazda and toyota below average with vauxhall up there as well.
LMAO right then..

I understand you might be young but there was a time when Peugeot were renowned for making cars that just never die. Things started going downhill with the introduction of the 206.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

The VW group always tells the tale of these...

Most components shared across platforms with some cost saving going on further down the brands you go.

Yet this would have us believe that the reliability stats favour the cheapest brands? I don't buy it.

I think there is simply more acceptance of minor faults on cheaper cars.

No you are wrong there.

With cars like Audi they have for more technology in them to go wrong.

As in the skoda will have say 1000 different parts. The audi will have 10,000 different parts.

Therefore the chances of something breaking in the audi is then therefore higher. Therefore less reliable.

However it's funny to see Lexus doesn't have this issue over Toyota. That is becuse majority of their parts are made in Japan most likely. Whereas with VAG group they will be made all over. Places like Portugal, Hungary, etc. Where less pride taken in their work.

So it's nothing to do with people finding faults more acceptable in cheaper cars but more expensive cars having more things which can fail. The more complicated you make something the less reliable it becomes.

 

[Nasher]

The list of known issues for VW engines is pretty long. Its not all down to parts but the design in places. Things which shouldnt be wear parts end up wearing.

 

[balky12]

This just isn't true, the national grid has said many times that they are well prepared for a full EV future and see no issues.

Is this true? I have spoken with a couple friends who work in the Energy sector who have echoed similar concerns regarding demand on current infrastructure if everyone went EV. Granted everyone going EV overnight isn't going to happen... however this country isn't best known for its forward planning when it comes to infrastructure.

 

[Stephanie Peterson]

I understand you might be young but there was a time when Peugeot were renowned for making cars that just never die. Things started going downhill with the introduction of the 206.

I am as far from young as French cars are from reliable.