The most and least reliable small cars on sale today - as revealed by 14,000 supermini owners
- What Car? readers reported on which superminis were reliable in the last year
- Some 14,000 vehicles were reported on, all of which are up to 3 years old
- Drivers were asked how many faults their car had and how long repairs took
- We've listed the three most - and three least - reliable small cars on sale
Small cars need to be economical and cheap to own, and that means they shouldn’t suffer with frequent faults that take time and money to put right.
What Car?’s 2017 Reliability Survey canvassed more than 14,000 owners of cars between zero and three years old to find out about car faults they’d experienced over the last 12 months. Respondents were asked to report how long each fault had kept their car off the road and how much it cost to get them fixed.
Those cars suffering from the fewest and cheapest problems were given the top ratings. Those that sat around in workshops for ages and generated big bills were given the lowest reliability ratings. Here are the three most reliable (scroll down for the least reliable).
Jazz handy: Honda's practical small car always seems to come out on top when it comes to owner satisfaction and reliability surveys. It has done it again here
1. Honda Jazz
Reliability rating: 100%
Not a single Jazz owner completing the survey had any faults with their car.
That was a perfect score for the small Japanese hatchback, reflecting the excellent performance of the previous-generation Jazz.
Want to find an affordable second-hand option? You'll find one here
Toyota Yaris owners only reported a handful of bodywork issues, which they said were easy to rectify
2. Toyota Yaris
Reliability rating: 94.2%
Nearly as reliable as the Jazz, with no faults on the newest cars and just a few bodywork issues on some of the older cars.
Proof yet again that some of the most durable cars come out of Japan.
Looking for a used Yaris? You'll find one here
Of the few Audi A1s that did incur problems, the issues were fixed within 7 days of them appearing
3. Audi A1
Reliability rating: 93.1%
Only 17 of every 100 zero-to-three-year-old A1s experienced a fault, and as with the Yaris they were just on the older examples.
Every problem-affected A1 remained driveable and was mended in under a week.
Audi A1s are expensive for such a small car, and they hold their value well on the second-hand market. You can find one here
And what about the least reliable?
The most common fault with VW Polos was non-engine electrics, including problems with the engine stop-start systems and reversing camera
3. Volkswagen Polo
Reliability rating: 58.8%
More than one in five Polo owners had problems with their cars, according to the survey.
Easily the most common were non-engine electrics (15 per cent), half of which were air-conditioning complaints.
Difficulties with the engine stop-start system, reversing camera and infotainment screen were reported too.
Want to a used Polo? You can find one here
Again, the Mazda 2 was also plighted by non-engine electric gremlins, according to owners
2. Mazda 2
Reliability rating: 52.7%
Like the Polo, most of the petrol-engined Mazda 2s’ issues were non-engine electrical related, again centering on the air-con system.
More than one in ten had fuel system issues.
Want to buy a second-hand Mazda 2? You can find one here
The Nissan Note proved that all Japanese cars aren't dependable. More than a third of owners said they endured issues with their in the last 12 months
1. Nissan Note
Reliability rating: 48.6%
More than one in three (36 per cent) Note owners experienced a fault with their cars.
Engine and engine electrics affected 10 per cent of petrol Notes with nearly 18 per cent of all Notes having non-engine electrical faults. Over 14 per cent had suspension trouble.
Looking for a used Nissan Note? You can find one here
Not interested in a small car? Below are the vehicle brands ordered by their average reliability track record according to owners:
The most and least reliable cars revealed: Half of the top ten are Japanese, reveals What Car?, but it's bad news for Britain
- Four of the top ten cars had an astonishing 100% reliability score
- The Honda Jazz, Toyota Aygo, Lexus CT200h and Audi A3 were fault-free
- But Britain's Range Rover Sport and Jaguar XE came bottom in their categories
- Overall almost a third of motorists with cars under three years had a fault
- Tesla's Model S comes bottom of the pile for electric cars
Half of the top ten most reliable cars in their category sold in the UK are from Japanese brands, a new owner-satisfaction report from What Car? has found.
But while it was good news for Japan, it was not so great for UK car making, with the Range Rover Sport, Jaguar XE and the British-built Nissan Qashqai coming bottom of their respective categories.
Overall, nearly a third (30 per cent) of motorists with cars of up to three years old suffered at least one fault with their car over the previous 12 months, the report said.
Good news for Honda Jazz owners: The small hatchback may not be famed for its thrilling driving but it did top the reliability league, with a 100% score
Britain’s hugely-popular Range Rover Sport diesel emerged as one of the worst performers with 60 per cent of vehicles suffering issues, the lowest overall breakdown reliability rating of any car reviewed and some examples being ‘off the road for a week’ while they were fixed.
That stood in contrast to the astonishing 100 per cent reliability scores racked up by four cars: the Honda Jazz, Toyota Aygo, Lexus CT200h and Audi A3, all of which owners said had been fault-free throughout the year.
Overall, six in ten of the top car makers for reliability were Japanese brands, the report found.
Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota, tops the league table of car makes least likely to break down with owners reporting a 92.1 per cent reliability rating in the real word study of more than 14,000 vehicles no more than three-years old.
It was followed by Mitsubishi (90.8 per cent), Toyota (89.6 per cent), and Suzuki (86.6 per cent).
But propping up the bottom of the league table is Jeep with fewer than half (42.1 per cent) of vehicles proving reliable, just ahead of Land Rover (50.6 per cent) and electric car firm Tesla (52.4 per cent), revealed the research.
Japanese cars also topped five out of 10 vehicle category classes for reliability with the Honda Jazz, Toyota Aygo and Lexus CT200h taking the crowns as the most dependable small car, city car and family car respectively.
The Nissan Leaf was hailed the most reliable electric vehicle – making up for an unexpectedly poor performance by the car-maker in other areas - and the Mitsubishi Outlander was branded the most robust of all the large SUVs on the market.
Most reliable cars by category
CITY CARS - Toyota Aygo - 100.0% reliability rating
SMALL CARS - Honda Jazz - 100.0% reliability rating
FAMILY CARS - Lexus CT200h - 100.0% reliability rating
MPVS - Ford B-Max - 91.6% reliability rating
SMALL SUVS - Volkswagen Tiguan (diesel) - 96.3% reliability rating
LARGE SUVS - Mitsubishi Outlander - 91.2% reliability rating
EXECUTIVE CARS - Audi A3 Saloon (petrol) - 100.0% reliability rating
LUXURY CARS - Mercedes-Benz S-Class (diesel) - 93.2% reliability rating
COUPES & CONVERTIBLES - Audi A3 Cabrio (petrol) - 92.5% reliability rating
ELECTRIC VEHICLES - Nissan Leaf - 93.9% reliability rating 
That's despite the brand being synonymous with electrical faults on models from the past and present day.
Korea’s Hyundai was seventh (84.8 per cent) ahead of Chinese-owned MG (83.4 per cent), Ford (82.1 per cent) and Japan’s Subaru (81.8 per cent).
Disappointingly for them, Mazda was down in 16th place (77.9 per cent) with fellow Japanese maker Nissan - which builds the Qashqai at the brand's UK factory in Sunderland - struggling down in a lowly 29th place (52.7 per cent).
There was positive news for German brands, too, including under-fire Volkswagen.
The car manufacturer, which is still suffering from the ramifications of its 2015 diesel emissions cheating scandal, produces the most reliable small SUV, the Tiguan diesel with a 96.3 per cent score.
Audi, which is also part of the Volkswagen Group, topped the charts with the A3 saloon (best executive car, 100 per cent) and A3 Cabriolet (best coupe convertible, 92.5 per cent), which were both voted as the most dependable motors in their categories.
Mercedes-Benz's S-Class saloon diesel (best luxury, 93.2 per cent) and Ford's B-Max (best MPV, 91.6 per cent) also took gold in their respective categories.
The Range Rover Sport diesel has been a huge sales hit for Land Rover but its owners are troubled by reliability for the luxury 4x4
At the bottom end of the scale, the least reliable large SUV - and least reliable of all cars - is the £61,000 Range Rover Sport diesel, with an comparably appalling reliability rating of just 14.5 per cent.
What Car? noted: ’Worryingly 60 per cent of Range Rover Sport diesels had problems. They spanned a wide range of areas, the most serious of which were the gearbox, drivetrain, engine and suspension.
'Not all cars were fixed under warranty and some were off the road for more than a week.’
Less positive for VW was the performance of its city car, the Up, which was voted the least reliable car in its class with a 74.8 per cent reliability score - despite it being one of the most expensive models on sale.
Nissan’s Note was least reliable small car (48.6 per cent).
Worst family car was the Nissan Pulsar (48.3 per cent) and the least reliable MPV was the Mercedes-Benz B-class (46.2 per cent).
The award for the least reliable small SUV is the Sunderland-made Nissan Qashqai petrol (28.9 per cent).
The least reliable executive car was the Jaguar XE diesel, according to What Car?'s survey
Of all the executive cars reported on, the Jaguar XE diesel (36.7 per cent) received the worst score.
Jaguar didn't prop-up the charts in the luxury car class, though - that unwanted award went to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class diesel saloon (46.1 per cent) - a car that costs between £36,000 and £108,000 depending on which diesel engine and spec you choose.
Surprisingly, Mazda’s MX-5 convertible - a car that in previous years has been rated highly in satisfaction surveys - was named least reliable coupe or convertible (71.0 per cent).
And the results won't do much to cheer Elon Musk, with the least reliable electric car mantle going to his £65,000 Tesla Model S (52.4 per cent)
The Audi A3 was the only non-Japanese car to score 100% reliability in the What Car? survey
‘It is also encouraging to see that German car manufacturers are backing up their reputation for quality with strong reliability scores.
No comments:
Post a Comment