following on from another thread, is there such a thing as a car or van that doesn’t break down? or that is easily fixed when it does? or is anything easily fixed if you know what you’re doing? is it an early land rover?

I call troll. 😉

Mk 1 or 2 ford focus 1.6 zetec , simple and reliable ( in my biased opinion 🙂 )

I call troll.

ive never heard of one of those, is it some kind of obscure 4×4? 😉

2nd the 1.6 focus. And when they do break parts are cheap / easily available 2nd hand.

The 1.9 PD VAG diesel is pretty bomb proof.

Better it doesn’t breakdown than its easy to fix.

So service before its due and maintain well.

I got a Xantia to 160,000 miles in 4 years with not a single problem.

My T4 has 144,000 miles and has proved reliable.

How about whatever your local taxi firm use?

And Sam came and fixed my roof so thanks for the help 🙂

Toyota or any of the Japs made car. Think Honda might be more complicated …

Father in laws Yaris diesel, amazing.

And Sam came and fixed my roof so thanks for the help

excellent, he’s a top bloke

Basically the rule of thumb is ANY vehicle that doesn’t have to be hooked up to a laptop is simple and easy to maintain…

If you are looking at a landrover then go for the Ladder Chassied, live axled versions roughly Pre TD5 era… and there is a HUGE following and plentiful parts suppliers but its a love them or hate them thing (i am VERY biased). the defenders are basic as in BASIC but bullet proof (well not exactly but you get the idea) and this is refelcted in pricing (hold prices well), discos more comfy and the classic range rover even better. The hippo (freelander) is a capable wee beastie but they have had a few reliability issues and can be VERY pricey to fix particularly transmissionwise.

Don’t buy a landy in winter… the price goes up by £1000 if it’s snowed recently…. mid summer is the best time as all those that bought them just for the snow get sick of them hanging around, dripping oil everywhere and intimidating their normal cars.

The 300TDi engined ones are the best of the Diseasels and the 3.5 & early 3.9 V8s the best of the Petrols, Defender is simpler to maintain than a discovery (electrics & body rot), DO NOT TOUCH a P38 Range Rover with a barge pole (i.e. 2nd generation) as they are just aproblem waiting to happen adn when it does its dealer time, take care with the later classic range rovers though the 3.5 V8s are pretty reliable (if somewhat thirsty).

Landys are simple to maintain and fix and are VERY reliable with the proviso that they require more regular service intervals than a normal car or van….

Older Ford Fiesta/Ka.

My Ibiza has been very reliable; that’s got the 1.9 VAG TDi. I suspect that as it’s quite a small car with a decent sized diesel, the engine remains pretty unstressed.

Errr, a rigid single speed. The only reliable transport.

What cost reliability though? My Sprinter has 310,000 on the clock and in the latter 100k that I’ve owned it the only non service repairs I’ve made have been a set of injector seals, a front spring and some worn out insulation on some of the wiring, which is creditable if you are going to keep a vehicle that long and drive it that far, so anything with a 2.2cdi engine in it (such as C class and E class mercs, Vitos, but also some Jeep Cherokees) has the longevity. But they all cost more than similarly sized car / vans in the first instance and as a diesel goes they’re not that economical, so you’ve got a higher capital outlay and an higher per-mile cost to make a saving on repairs

I’ve also got a 1.7dti Astra Van, reputedly complicated and unreliable – but common faults on unreliable motors are easier to diagnose and repair than mechanics puzzling over uncommon faults in reputedly reliable ones and a cottage industry has grown around its common achilles heels, diagnosis is quick and aftermarket and refurbished parts are plentiful and cheap. A google and £120 effected a diy repair that the dealer was quoting £3k for. That and the 65mpg it returns and the £1k it cost to buy more than offsets the costs of occasional repair.

I had an old diesel Rover 400 which ran for years and did 140000 miles, including being ragged up and down a farm track twice a day, without needing anything other than one new battery (and the regular stuff – like tyres). Unfortunately it didn’t survive having most of the engine bay ripped out by a git in a Ford Focus (I wasn’t too happy either).

I now drive an MG. Consequently I am now on first name terms with pretty much everybody who works for the AA 🙄

my mondeo has been reliable, 2.0 tdci, 152000 miles, routine servicing and normal wear tear items only.
however, even if you buy something that 50 people recommend as being very reliable, you could still end up with a friday afternoon special which breaks down regularly.
so its either new, with warranty
or 2nd hand, which is always a gamble.

Another VAG 1.9 fan, no dpf, no dmf, uncomplicated cat, not covered with electrical sensors…

That or what ever minicab drivers use, mainly skodas… so thats VAG too

Simple nswer is , every vehicle is complicated therefore every vehicle has the capabilty to breakdown .

To say such and such vehicle is 100% reliable is rubish , they all have their faults , just some get publicized more than others . Also one owners acceptable failure/breakdown is unacceptable by another owners standards .

Unfortunately , consumers expectations of the comfort , performance and longevity of a vehicle has increased the complexity of vehicles therfore something will fail eventualy . Years ago it was an achievment if a car made it to 100,000 miles when 3 year old cars regularly needed rotten sills replace as they were so badly built . Now a car is expected to do the same mileage without fault , sorry but it’s not going to happen , just stop for a moment and think about how many moving parts are involved , all machined to exacting specs . Don’t even get me started on electrics , there’s way more computing power in most vehicles these days than the the laptop or ipad your sat in front of , you wouldn’t leave either of those in the snow , rain and sub zero temps and still expect it to work would you ?

Not having a rant , just think people should look at the modern car/van etc and realise what’s involved in making it work rather than taking it for granted and bumming a product when it does evenutaly stop performing as intended .

Honda………

What you need for reliability are three things: fuel injection, a good basic level of quality and simplicity.

Fuel injection is an absolute must. The amount of faff that’s removed from running the car is unreal.

A decent level of quality. Seperate fuses for everything, in a place where you can get at them. A body that doesn’t rust, and an interior that can take some wear. Then add real basics: a decent engine with no tendency for oil leaks, and because you will forget to top up eventually, no dual mass flywheel, no need to do anything other than spark plugs and the cam belt every 60k. Just those things massively improve the chances of the car being serviced something like properly.

The last thing is simplicity. An interior held together with screws or clips that can be reused, an engine bay that’s got some room etc.

I’d say old petrol Golfs fit the bill very well. 10k oil and filter services, cheap parts and you can get the diagnostic gear for them cheaply if you want to. The things that tend to break are easy diy jobs and there are no DMFs to worry about. Stuff like old Landys can be made to go forever, but knowing people who run them, I’d be sick of fixing it within a fortnight

Big ole lazy engines.

The more efficient it is the more ancillarys it seems to have that cost a bomb and the more highly strung it seems ti be.

1.0 ecoboost giving 140 bhp. – yep i see that lastng a long time without issue- not.

Dmf , dpf , and egr – all the best bits of a modern diesel – each one costing a bomb to fix – and while you can prolong their life through the way you drive , its not as clear cut to spot issues as it used to be unless your an effin expert at them.

Where as old rover v8s get to 200k – they aint always working as they should – cam lobe wear etc but its not uncommon to see them still running fine on 4 cylinders – redundancy 🙂

But then these days its rare to see a really rusty car….. The cynic in me says – we had to make one or other crap as we need to sell new cars – can have you getting 300k out of em.

We had a toyota sienna people carrier in turkmenistan on horrendous roads ….. Drove tight and solid like new.

297k on the clock.

My Ka just met its maker 101,000 miles it did with no love and very little oil ,never had a single thing go wrong with it in 5 years with the exception of wearing the spark plug electrodes out

Mk3 Mondeo and Pug 405 have been my most reliable cars. Ford Orion was the worst.

I spent ages and ages reading reliability surveys and reports after having a serious of cars fail spectacularly. I was determined not to waste another few grand on another clunker.

At the time, they all pointed to Hondas, specifically Civics in the 95-2000 era. I bought one about 8 years ago, and despite being an old car, I have never had anything go wrong with it, aside from consumables. In fact I think rust will get it before anything mechanical does.

So, in my case (and the breakdown surveys tended to agree), Honda is a good choice. I think the Civics, in particular, went downhill in reliability after the redesign though, from what I have read.

Just sold my 1.9 tdi Skoda at 172000 miles and not a day off the road through failure.

edit – All this talk of lazy simple engines has me a tiny bit worried, though – new car is a 1.4tsi so turbocharger + supercharger + lots of other scary bits…

Rachel

I’ve had most reliable Honda ever produced. Honda accord (mk4) thing. It served me well for 7 years, but then reliability wise it wasn’t any better than Mk2 Golf or Mk3 Passat I used to have. Things like starter motors, generators, suspension bushes wear out, so eventually you will pay for those repairs.
I guess you better forget about term of bomb proof, because Mercedes w123/w124 no longer been produced. Had experience of owning w123 and to this date only my current car (Passat) matches it with positive emotions. W124 is even more comfortable and refined but boy do they rust!

Most reliable?
Something new with warranty.
Most Fixable?
Having a good local garage.

All parts fail, nothing lasts forever, there will always be a bad one (unless it’s rover they were all built on a Friday afternoon – there were no good ones)

Big old thumping engines in simple cars yep reliable probably, fixable at home (only in you know how, have the tools and space and time and parts and a garage and an engine lift etc. etc. just an excuse to run a huge engine) the money you save on a modern car will pay for any servicing.

Most important thing, service when due and know what your dealing with, if you have DPF boot it every so often etc.

Servicing and repairs are mutually exclusive – although some friends dont think so .

Big old engine keeps milage low.

Doesnt need to be all that big either tbh – 2.5 diesel or even the 2.2 low pressure turbo we have at the monent

Small petrol cars loaded up and doing 70 mph – most folk are hessitant to buy a car thats done alot of heavy towing yet they would buy a 1l c1 thats been loaded to the gunnels all its days without questioning it.

But your right mike home servicing some mechanical apptitude an interest and tools all influence my choice.

If you want reliable, do not, buy a moto guzzi. 😀

Citroen Berlingo – both of mine were super reliable and my last 2.0 Hdi seemed both better cost and reliability wise than my brothers Passat TDi

I now have a mk 2.5 petrol focus – seems fine at the moment, and a little cheaper (not much) than the berlingo to service