Most Reliable Car Brands Unveiled - & The Least Reliable!
Car reliability is an incredibly important factor to consider when you sit down to look for your next new or used car. Luckily MotorEasy's done all the reliability research for you and popped it into a lovely infographic to make making an informed decision even easier.
How Reliable Is My Car?
If you're looking at buying a Subaru then you'll be pleased to hear it's topped the MotorEasy list of the most reliable cars on UK roads, proving by far the least likely to break down.
The Japanese manufacturer of the Impreza, Forester, Outback and BRZ trounced the competition - with closest rival Honda nearly four times more likely to need a repair.
We do however recommend that you think twice before looking to buy an Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet or Land Rover - as these manufacturers recorded the worst scores in the car reliability stakes.
How To Determine Car Reliability?
We analysed 47,000 car warranty plans over a period of two and half years (40,000 years worth of car ownership) and involved 33 manufacturers, to see just how many repairs were requested, and what was the cost of those fixes.
As you now know Subaru was the most reliable manufacturer - with just 3 in every 100 vehicles needing a repair in an average 12 month period.
These cars were only a little bit more expensive to fix than a Nissan, too, with the average repair bill hitting the table at £420.
But, and sorry if this was your dream car, Alfa Romeos were most likely to break down - with 43 out of every 100 cars developing a fault each year - at an average cost of £215.
And Land Rover appear not only expensive to remedy - with average repair costs cheaper than only Porsche and Lexus - but they were also second from bottom in terms of their frequency of failure.
Almost a third of Land Rover owners - 32 per cent - experience a fault each year, putting the British firm on a par with Chevrolet in the break-down stakes.
Protect your Land Rover with a MotorEasy car warranty
Duncan McClure Fisher, Founder and CEO of MotorEasy said: “Land Rover is an iconic British brand, but our rankings show it has some work to do on the reliability front – they keep telling us their latest cars are more reliable but our stats show that if you own a Land Rover you must have warranty protection.”
The vehicles included in our analysis were between 3 and 15 years old and covered more than 40,000 years’ worth of warranty data.
The figures also set about confirming and busting some age-old motoring beliefs.
Alfa Romeo was near the bottom of the charts, but this has only reinforced the brand’s stereotype for frequent - but affordable - repairs.
But manufacturers that have been traditionally viewed as unreliable, such as Fiat and Renault, proved more robust than many of their premium peers, great news for owners.
German brands BMW and Audi were stuck in the bottom half the table - more likely to need fixing than a Renault.
McClure Fisher added: “Japanese cars remain as reliable as ever, with the likes of Subaru, Toyota, and Honda topping the charts.
“Honda’s decision to close its Swindon plant is especially sad, considering the high-quality vehicles the manufacturer builds here in the UK.
“It’s also concerning to see premium brands like Jaguar Land Rover, Audi and BMW at the bottom – suggesting their product quality may be slipping.
“If they are to hold on to their premium image in the future, this needs to be addressed.”
We also found that the average repair costs across all manufacturers was £314.83, with premium brands costing the most on average to fix.
With repairs costing this much, it's a no brainer that a warranty will help save you hundreds of pounds to put towards something more fun, like a driving holiday.
