Japanese vehicles are by far the most reliable cars on the road according to research conducted by Warranty Direct and What Car?; with seven Japanese manufacturers filling the top seven places in the list of the ten most reliable car manufacturers. This survey encompassed data from 50,000 Warranty Direct policies covering cars aged between three and ten years.
Honda topped the rankings for the fifth year in succession, withToyotamaintaining its place despite controversy over manufacturing flaws in recent times.
It wasn’t such good news for Land Rover who was judged to be the least reliable manufacturer, with 53% of its car reported to have suffered faults.
The most expensive manufacturer to buy replacement parts for is Porsche, with an average cost of £717.36 per breakdown, compared to just £226.54 for Renault which has the lowest cost of repairs on average.
Steve Fowler, the editor at What Car? Commented: “This year’s survey produced some interesting results. Several prestige manufacturers have suffered embarrassing failure rates, while brands that buyers may not associate with reliability have shown a marked improvement.”
Most reliable manufacturers
- Honda
- Subaru
- Mitsubishi
- Lexus
- Toyota
- Mazda
- Nissan
- Skoda
- Kia
- Mini
Least reliable
- Land Rover
- Alfa Romeo
- Renault
- Saab
- MG
- Vauxhall/Opel
- Peugeot
- Audi
- Rover
- BMW
Car choice
However, this is at odds with a MoneySupermarket.com survey of the ten most popular cars in the UK. This was determined by looking at the number of car insurance quotes which have been retrieved for each different type of vehicle on the MoneySupermarket.com website. It revealed that the Vauxhall/Opel Corsa is the most popular vehicle, with the top Honda vehicle being the Civic which could manage no better than 10th position.
According to the statistics released by the price comparison company, the Corsa was the only vehicle to attract over one million car insurance searches, with the Civic attracting just over 400,000.
Remarkably, the Civic was the only Japanese vehicle in the top ten, perhaps indicating that reliability is not the greatest concern for motorists when they are buying a new car:
Most popular cars
- Vauxhall/Opel Corsa
- Ford Fiesta
- Vauxhall/Opel Astra
- Ford Focus
- Volkswagen Golf
- Renault Clio
- Peugeot 206
- Fiat Punto
- Volkswagen Polo
- Honda Civic
MoneySupermarket.com car insurance expert Peter Harrison believes that running costs are a large contributor towards motorists car choices; with the Corsa and Fiesta both attracting cheap car insurance and fuel costs. It is therefore surprising that repair costs are not also being considered.
The perfect solution?
Honda has taken note of the increasing importance of running costs in determining vehicle popularity, and has therefore decided to introduce a range of fuel efficient vehicles. One example of which is the new Honda CR-Z hybrid which is powered by a 1.5 litre petrol engine and has a combined fuel consumption figure of just 56.5 mpg (miles per gallon) which is 5mpg less than a brand new 1.2 litre petrol Corsa.
Additionally, unlike the Corsa, the CR-Z is exempt from road tax charging on account of it producing far less C02. This combined with the potentially reduced repair bill compared to Vauxhall/Opel models (with Vauxhall/Opel being the sixth most unreliable car manufacturer according to the Warranty Direct data) should help make the CR-Z hugely attractive to prospective buyers who are on the look out for a reliable vehicle with low running costs.
However, the major stumbling block is the price. Costing £17,695 from new, the CR-Z is almost £9,000 more expensive than a basic Vauxhall Corsa; this potential explains the lack of popularity of Honda vehicles on the MoneySupermarket.com list, despite their strong reliability record. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
October 8, 2011
Uncategorized