Here's the Which! magazine 2011 list of reliable car brands, from the best to the worst: Honda Daihatsu Toyota Mitsubishi Lexus Mazda Suzuki Subaru Kia Mercedes-Benz Hyundai Skoda Chevrolet (mostly built by Daewoo) Nissan Volkswagen Mini Volvo BMW Ford Audi Seat Vauxhall (mostly built by Opel) Porsche Smart Peugeot Jeep Jaguar Citroen Fiat Chrysler Saab Renault Land Rover Alfa Romeo
There are only five big groups that buy new cars: organisations, businesspeople, yuppies, middle-class families and old people.For anyone who is not in one of the above five groups, we advise buying secondhand. New cars depreciate up to 65% in a single year, they are costly to finance, and the convenience and prestige of a new car is more than made up for in the huge financial losses you are going to incur as a result of buying it.
As a rule the Korean cars offer the best value for money when it comes to standard features, with Japanese second, Australian cars third and the European manufacturers a very distant fourth.
thejazzpianoma,
Feb 16, 9:19pm
Not sure exactly where they are going wrong, I have just noted the big differences between their results and the likes of the reliabilityindex over time.
I am all for surveys, I just like ones where they really are just taking data and taking it in a sensible fashion. Some survey's are taken in such a way that the consumer can taint it with their perception or are not a random sample (Topgear one is a bit like this I think).
I do know that some of the JD power surveys use data taken from only the first 3 months of the cars life. This is great for showing up delivery faults and quality control but does little to show us anything else.
I am by far not the only critic of these guy's, I see my thoughts echo'd in various articles I read.
Like I said if you want a good reliability survey, use the reliability index as its just data straight from the warranty company. Forget the manufacturer part though and cut straight to the specific make/model/year you are looking at.
Even then though you have to be a little careful. Sometimes for example the sample can cover a model update/change. You also have to remember its a U.K survey so samples will have a high proportion of diesel vehicles and manual transmissions.
Spec is generally similar although sometimes their base models are more basic than here.
Just a matter of reading things in context and using common sense really.
Edit: I suspect the U.K fleet car one may be good to. But not all vehicles are used as fleet cars and I don't know enough about how its done to fully endorse it yet.
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