UK worst for car reliability
Jaguar plummets in reliability survey
More woe was poured on UK car firms already under pressure, Jaguar and Land Rover, after the manufacturers came second and third from bottom in a survey of vehicle reliability and cost of repair. Only off-road specialist Jeep recorded worse results in the study of 30,000 vehicles from twenty-seven leading manufacturers.
The Far East remains number one for reliability, with eight of the top ten manufacturers analysed by independent automotive warranty firm, Warranty Direct, from either Japan or Korea.
Warranty Direct’s annual Reliability Index, which looks at 30,000 vehicles from twenty-seven leading manufacturers, combines the number of faults a car suffers alongside the actual cost of repairing them. With an average of 46,500 miles, most vehicles under the spotlight were entering their fourth and fifth years. The average repair bill stood at £321.82 – a fall of 10 per cent over the last twelve months.
Mazda retained the top spot, a position it has held for four consecutive years, with Honda and Hyundai leapfrogging Ford to second and third places, respectively. At number five, Spain’s rising star, Seat makes its maiden appearance in the Warranty Direct Reliability Index as the highest placed European manufacturer.
In comparison to beleaguered Jaguar, rival executive car maker, BMW climbed nine places compared to its 2003 standing to number seven, despite recording labour rates of £100 plus per hour to carry out remedial work. Mercedes fell marginally to twelfth with Audi in twenty-first place after Warranty Direct were paying up to £147 per hour for labour.
Alongside BMW, only four other manufacturers improved their positions in the 2004 Reliability Index – Honda and Rover rose 1 place each with German giants VW and Korea’s Hyundai, both up 3.
Renault was the worst performing volume carmaker at number nineteen with a below average £287 cost of repair, but a lowly frequency of failure of over 38 percent.
Subaru and Mitsubishi’s excellent reliability records are only tarnished by the sky-high costs of repair when things do eventually go wrong.
"A car suffering a breakdown is just half the problem for the owner. To get it back on the road, they have to fund the cost of the repair. Motorists invariably fail to consider the two together," explains Duncan McClure Fisher of Warranty Direct.
"The Far East is still home to the most reliable and cost effective, manufacturers in the World. Encouragingly, despite the lowly positions of Land Rover and Jaguar, British workers are well represented in the top ten with Honda, Toyota and Peugeot all building models at plants over here."
More here.
I mean shit, get a Honda or a Toyota and strip it down to see how they build it. And THEN DO IT!
Lotusacbc said:
I just dont get it. How in the hell can you NOT make a car that doesnt break down or leak oil? I mean, am I nuts for thinking this way? With all the money and technology, what kind of engineers do these companies have working for them? A bunch of friggen apes or something?
I mean shit, get a Honda or a Toyota and strip it down to see how they build it. And THEN DO IT!
I think I agree. It's all down to attention to detail.
When I worked for Lucas we wanted to move a manual assembly line 4 foot. Like it was 30 benches. For a few switches.
Nissan wanted the whole Production Validation Testing done again. Like 3 months of proving in the lab.
In the same time we moved renaults assembly line to eastern europe and had to do very little proving.
With the situation I have recently experienced I can quite understand how this data is easily distorted. In my experience, some garages will sell a car which breaks down 5 days later - hey-presto a warrnaty claim. I imagine, other more scrupilous garages will put the fauls right before selling the car, hence no warranty claim (but an expese to the garage ofcourse).
Just my 2p.
Los Angeles said:
It's a mystery. In the USA Jaguar have been in the top five for reliability for almost five years with cars build in Coventry. Does this collapse mean one standard for US customers, another for British customers? Surely not. Why the discrepancy? Do they get reassembled in a warehouse when they arrive at a USA port? Or does JD Power have a varying set of criteria for quality in the USA? Answers on a postcard.
I started out in the motor trade years ago as a Jaguar specialist and the Anglo/American difference was apparent even then.
The build quality and finish between a home product and a USA export Jag was so marked it was as if they were made by a different company.
I think it comes from the fact that the Goddam Yankees don't take any shit!
Whereas we simply don't complain enough, often enough.
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