Britain's Most Reliable Cars

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What was surprising from the survey data was that if things did go wrong, the Japanese brands are more expensive to repair than European cars in general and French cars in particular—Skoda proved to be cheapest to repair, boasting an average yearly garage bill of UKP 215.94, but the three big French marques Citroen, Renault and Peugeot ran 2,3 and 4 in the top 10 list with Honda being the only Japanese representative amongst the top 10.

Although Porsche is the 10th most reliable car on the road, the German marque has the most expensive average repair bill (UKP793.05) of the 30 manufacturers analysed by Warranty Direct—and it was SO MUCH MORE expensive that it's almost hard to believe—47% more expensive to repair than second placed Jeep and 64% more than third placed Jaguar.

Honda claims top spot as the brand least likely to break down with fellow Far East manufacturers Mazda, Toyota, Subaru, Nissan and Mitsubishi close behind in the Top 10. At the other end of the table, off-road favourite, Land Rover, records failure rates of 47 percent in an average year—that's nearly one in two vehicles and clearly just doesn't measure up for any brand, let alone a premium brand name.

Renault and Saab also perform badly in terms of reliability, both with a 38 percent chance of breaking down in an average year, while another premium 4x4 manufacturer Jeep no longer stands up to the promise upon which its name was built. For brands supposedly defined by rugged reliability, the pair of off road manufacturers are at the wrong end of the table.

"It can be a painful experience owning a car," says Duncan McClure Fisher, managing director of Warranty Direct. "Perhaps buyers should canvass for Health Warning stickers in the same way the industry has adopted low emissions tax band grading. Maybe that'll incentivise improved reliability and quality?"

Now before anybody runs off and starts bandying these figures around in other countries, we should point out a few things to be fair. We expect the reliability figures will prove similar across all countries, but the cost of repair might be a very different matter, and could depend on the distributor in other countries and their pricing policy on spare parts.

Similarly, Porsche was probably quite unfortunate to be one of the few premium brands to be popular enough to make it into the 30 manufacturers being analysed, and although its cars might be far more expensive to repair compared to non-premium brands, we don't expect it would be any more expensive than comparable brands.

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