A new used car survey has named three Japanese brands as the most reliable in the UK. According to a survey carried out by What Car? magazine and Warranty Direct, Honda, Toyota and Lexus top the charts in terms of reliability for cars aged between three and ten years old. Suzuki and Subaru ranked fourth and fifth respectively. The report surveyed the Warranty Direct policies of 50,000 motorists and car insurance policy holders.
South Korean firms also showed well, with Hyundai tying for sixth place with Japanese car companies Mazda and Mitsubishi. Chevrolet was the only non-Asian car manufacturer to rank in the top ten on the most reliable car list. Land Rover came last in the survey, with Audi, Jaguar and Mercedes all ranking as the least reliable. According to the survey, seven out of 10 Land Rover owners will experience a breakdown in any given year.
“They need to do better,” What Car? editor in chief, Chas Hallett, told the BBC, adding learning the poor reliability of some models would be “surprising to many”. “Reliability is so important to motorists, especially when times are tough”. Honda tops the list for the seventh year in a row, with only a 10 per cent chance of their cars suffering a breakdown. “Japanese car makers really do deliver on reliability and Honda is exceptionally good at this,” said Mr Hallett.
However part of the blame can be held by the increasing amount of features motorists expect from vehicles, particularly the luxury end of the market. “Cars have become increasingly complex, with lots of gadgetry on board, especially on executive model cars coming with “Certificate of Conformity“, where buyers expect more and more bang for their buck,” said Warranty Direct’s managing director, Duncan McClure Fisher.