http://www.whatcar.co.uk/News_Article.asp?NA_ID=216403

Reliability survey 2005
2 August 2005

Car buyers about to order a new car should think carefully about choosing a so-called prestige model.

According to WhatCar?'s fifth annual reliability survey – in association with independent warranty provider Warranty Direct – a Land Rover, Saab, Audi or Alfa Romeo could give their owners more headaches than a Skoda, the most reliable European car maker in the survey. Mercedes-Benz is the only prestige European manufacturer among the top 10 brands.

For trouble-free motoring, buyers should look beyond European makers to Japanese and Korean cars. Honda is now our most reliable brand, narrowly beating Mazda off the top spot it had occupied for the last four years. Toyota is in third position.

Just 10% of Hondas in the survey needed repairing in the last two years, while Land Rovers – the least reliable brand – had a claim rate of more than 45%.

There are also huge variations in typical repair costs for different makes. While few things are likely to go wrong with a Honda, average repair bills of £325 may make some owners wince.

Costliest to repair are, perhaps not surprisingly, Porsches at £972. Cheapest to fix are Hyundai cars, at an average of £135 per garage trip, with Skodas (£168) not far behind.

Steve Fowler, group editor of What Car?, said: ‘One of Honda's famous advertising slogans in recent years has been 'Isn't it nice when things just work?'. The good news for Honda owners is that the company is living up to its claims. The same can't be said of some of the prestige makes in the latest What Car? survey.’

 

What's interesting about this survey is that it shows not only the number of repairs per 100 vehicles but also the average costs of repairs and repair times.

For example, the reliability of a Subaru may not be all that bad, but once it does have a problem, the cost and time for repairs are simply staggeringly high, especially considering the mainstream nature of the brand.

Toyota also has a pretty high average repair cost, even higher than that of the Mercedes, which is kind of surprising as well.

Hyundai seems to be the best of all as far as the "expected repair cost" (my invented term) goes. Kudos to them.

Expected repair cost = average repair cost x repair rate (number of repairs per 100 cars / 100)

 

Whoa, what makes Subaru's so pricey to fix?

 

I am impressed Nissan was rated so high. Wonder where Infiniti is? lol.

 

Infiniti is not sold in Europe. And the Nissans sold in Europe, we don't get. Funny they could be so high quality in Europe and so poor quality here.

Glad to see Benz moving up, but damn Audi, WTF??? And Skoda is a VW brand and rated well.

 

Well, we both get the Pathfinder, Murano, and Frontier (Navara in Europe).

 

Also funny is that ALL 5-star and 4-star-rated brands are Asian. The only one Asian brand with a lower rating is Subaru, which is still above average. That says a lot about the quality of Asian brands.

 

i think it's because subaru's got that boxer engine and their finicky AWD system dealy on all their cars...

 

Geez, Saab is really knocking em out of the ball park huh? lol

 

Probably the fact that they all come with standard AWD and the fact that all of their engines (like Porsche) have double-heads, valve covers, and associated hardware. However, this is balanced by the fact that Subaru is today one of the most reliable nameplates, and, other than the older 2.5L flat-four head gaskets, usually do not need expensive repairs. The AWD systems hold up especially well.

Also.......note on this list that the average age of Subarus at repair time......5.5 years........ is higher than ANY other make on that list; even higher than Lexus. That is something to think about....and gives you an idea of how reliable they are.

 

The engine? Yes. The AWD?....No. (see my post above). Subaru engine repairs can be time-consuming and costly. (See my post above). But the Subaru AWD systems are clearly the best in the $30,000-and-under class. Much has been discussed here at CL about this.

 

considering all the issues with new Civics and Accords (TLs) I was originally surprised with the survey. Then I remembered my experiences with Honda Stealerships. They have such a low number of repair claims because it's virtually impossible to get a Honda dealer to repair anything. Unless the engine quite literally erupts into a fireball while in the service bay the usual Honda diagnosis is, "There's nothing wrong, it's supposed to do that."

It's that kind of world-class service that MOTIVATES me to buy a Lexus.

 

Lexus dealers are not immune from giving out nonsense either. Many 2000-2003 ES owners were told there was nothing wrong with the throttle and transmission response of their cars when it was evident that there was a significant glitch in the throttle-by-wire system and transmission ECU. And the 3.0L V6 is more unforgiving of oil changes than most engines, but the dealerships were slow to admit this.

 

dear god, it's spreading