Japanese Cars Top Reliability Table

THERE’S some good news for owners of cars from Japanese brands, as they have topped a recent reliability survey conducted by Warranty Direct.

The bad news? Certain UK brands didn’t perform so well. UK reliability figures were based on the performance of Jaguar, Land Rover and Vauxhall models.

Warranty Direct said that UK brands had been placed bottom of the eight-nation table "thanks to low reliability scores from both Jaguar and Land Rover".

Its reliability table was drawn up from analysis of UK-owned vehicles averaging five years old and with mileages of around 50,000.

The lower the score given to a particular country's cars, the more reliable they were.

Japan, with a score of 80, was at the top of the list, followed by France (with a score of 113), South Korea (123), and USA (156). Then came Sweden (158), Germany (168), Italy (170.5) and, in last place, the UK with a score of 209.

The most common faults for all the cars analysed were either axle and suspension or electrical.

Warranty Direct pointed out that many Britons drove foreign cars that were made in the UK. For example, the Nissan Qashqai is produced in Sunderland and the Honda Civic in Swindon.

Commenting on the survey, Warranty Direct managing director David Gerrans said: "Though the automotive industry has many blurred lines now in terms of countries of origin, the average consumer maintains certain preconceptions about car brands and the countries that create them.

"'German reliability' is an oft-used phrase, but as demonstrated here, the country's output as a whole doesn't match up to its close neighbours, the French, whose cars as a whole are more reliable."

By Press Association reporters