Now this is interesting. People buying say, Fiestas or Ibizas might be moving up from a banger, so may well be so impressed by the simple new car factor that any issues don’t bother them – or they are not demanding customers. Someone who’s prepared to drop £30k on something flash could be more demanding of warranty.

Yep. I’m aware of a garage who had one customer bring a car back ‘under warranty’ because the paint didn’t look the same colour in all light conditions! She was very politely told to go away & stop being silly only to return a day later with her brow-beaten husband because she believed that the garage were simply fobbing her off as she was female. He was very apologetic but they explained the whole thing again to try & appease her.

Priceless!

Alfa – for every person that has had a good one, roughly a thousand others have had a duffer.

I must be one of the lucky few (touchwood) 🙂

In my experience…

Unreliable.

Non ‘ traditional’ Landrovers. Hateful Freelander, was off the road for 12% of the two years I’d had it, from new. One of the Discoveries I was loaned as a courtesy car broke down twice in a week. Appalling dealership attitude . Apart from Gateway Landrover in Newport, who actually cared.

Unsure / mixed thoughts.

I generally like VW group stuff and am one of those nutters who goes to some of the shows.
I have had 3 Passats all from new , two excellent ones, one which was reliable, but parts like door handles and interior fittings just fell off. One 2008 Golf estate, almost as shit as the Freelander, Ive never had a clutch go in under 100000 miles, this one did at 28000, followed by its turbo at 34000.
Currently in a Skoda Superb and it is.
Both my transporters have been trouble free. Vw dealers are at best indifferent. Skoda ones seem a bit better.

Very good indeed.
Never had a bad Vauxhall. 5 in total over the years.
Saab, without doubt my favourite reliable car was a 2001 9-5 estate.

I should probably point out that vans apart , I’m lucky (?) enough to get cars for work, which get changed usually at two or three year / 100k miles. Im also old enough to have had a few ( cars!).

Vauxhall – just picked yet another crappy Insignia hire car and the fuel gauge isn’t working properly. It has 6000 miles on it. Hateful to drive too.

EDIT – though I do have a soft spot for Nova’s – the two we have owned weren’t any more unreliable than cars of the same era and you could at least fix them fairly easily…

My most reliable car to date is my current Berlingo (about 6 years old). It’s sailed through the last 2 MOTs with no real issues*.

However, my previous cars were two Fiats and a Renault so it’s not up against particularly tough competition…

*fingers crossed I haven’t jinxed it!

I would not buy another Ford.

I used to love them, reliable and easy to fix.

Now after changing my Mondeo mk 3 calipers repeatedly under warranty, cables, rear subframe bushes, master cylinder and inlet manifolds falling apart.

It was really a case of bad design and no recalls. Otherwise it would have been an excellent car.

I’m in my second Mondeo and not had any of those problems. Admittedly I had the hatchback for 2 years before getting an estate so no subframe bushes to replace. The Mondeo estate is longest I’ve kept a car and it’s been 100% reliable only wear and tear items some more than others such as brakes and droplinks due to carrying heavy loads. Only item that has failed was the reverse switch on the gearbox.

Most unreliable car was my wife’s Mini Cooper R56. Turbo, high oil consumption and rattles all of which BMW said weren’t a problem. Pity the person who has that car now.

Vw dealers are at best indifferent.

One reason I feel good about VW is that Sinclair of Cardiff are really good. Pretty much the only garage I’ve ever been in where I didn’t feel like I was being screwed. They are constrained by VW pricing of course but have done stuff for me without charging.. Out of pity I think 🙂

Funny how if a vw has a reliability issue, it’s “just a few parts on a particular batch of cars” and has been blown out of all proportion, yet if another brand (alfa/fiat) has an issue it because they are all crap. VW’s marketeers must be praised for their ability to convince the owners of their mediocre machines that they are wonderfully reliable, despite the fact that there are in fact s##t.

The difference between VAG stuff and Japanese stuff can be summed up, based on personal experience, as follows:

VAG – Feels really good quality, but doesn’t last
Jap – Feels cheap, lasts forever

Also what get me is people criticise the likes of subaru for having expensive parts, this is irrelevant because you won’t need to buy any.

VAG – Feels really good quality, but doesn’t last
Jap – Feels cheap, lasts forever

May be true, but do I really want to drive forever in a cheap feeling car?

May be true, but do I really want to drive forever in a cheap feeling car?

At least you will be driving!

Any Landrover with Independent suspension has a poor reccord in my experiance. However the proper Landrovers with axles (ok not the P38a!) just keep on going if you look after them i.e My 300 Discovery on which I have put on 117000 of its 156000 miles. In the decade or so i’ve owned it the only thing it has needed other than service items is a power steering pump that cost about £60.

been very disappointed by by newer Nissans even more so by the main dealer customer service which has been shamefully bad

Don’t buy the first models of anything we have an Alfa 156 20v turbo diesel done 140,000 miles in it over the last 6 years it’s had a couple of boost problems easily fixed and a clutch and a couple of suspension arms. Other than that it’s just tyres and fuel.
We also have a merc clk late model on a 08 plate. Just add fuel and rubber, only really done 50000 in it though.

A D mentioned a Nova, I had one I spotted by the side of the road for £500, it was a ‘C’ prefix, probably twelve/fifteen years old when I bought it, it was a 1.0, and I found a set of three-spoke alloys from an SL which looked neater than the steels.
Had it for around five or six years, tended to treat it gently in case it broke, then I bought my Puma.
Tried to sell it for £150, nobody was interested, couldn’t even sell it for scrap, the Vauxhall spares bloke I got the alloys from would take it off my hands just for the alloys, so I was resigned to giving it away, then a woman from down the road called in and asked about it.
Needed a cheap car for her son who’d just passed his test, offered me £100, which I gladly accepted.
Forward six months, and I see the lad and a mate trying to cram a rabbit hutch in the back, so I pulled in and he came over grinning like mad, chuffed to bits with the car, best thing he’d ever had!
Turned out the little car I’d treated with kid-gloves he’d driven 16,000 miles in in the six months since I sold it, with only an alternator going on the fritz, and putting oil and petrol in it!
Goes to show, you can never really predict what’s going to be reliable or not, that little Nova was a lot of fun to drive, and never cost much to keep on the road.

VAG – Feels really good quality, but doesn’t last
Jap – Feels cheap, lasts forever

.

My experience too. Had 3 Passats; although solidly built, there was barely a month when I wasn’t fixing something. My current car is an ’09 Mazda 6, and although some of the plastics are not as nice as those found in Passats, it is so much more enjoyable to drive than a ’01 Passat, especially on windy roads.

my 12 year old 147 has 225k on the clock. 2.0 TS, manual.

the trick is to ignore the warning beeps as various things shut down.

the electrically heated wing mirrors work beautifully, and provide a cosy home for spiders.

Based on the experiences of the 25 or so people who i work with (many of whom have company cars and do lots of miles) I’d say Vauxhall.
Mate who sits oposite me had a 58 plate Zafira that was known as triggers broom.. by the time it was scrapped at 140k pretty much everything had been replaced.

However my manager has just bought a new MG (AKA the Chinese Rover) which has spent quite a bit of time back at the dealers..

However my manager has just bought a new MG (AKA the Chinese Rover)

Someone actually buys those? With money? 😯

that little Nova was a lot of fun to drive, and never cost much to keep on the road.

Same experience I had with my C plate 1.2 Merit. I ragged it everywhere and it never broke down…the rear arches just rotted away though.

Mk2 Astra the same. Had a German one (great engine, crap body) and an English one (crap engine, great body).

The German one became the victim of winter. Such as shame as the engine was brilliant.