Let’s talk reliability of new cars

Let’s talk reliability of new cars

Author
Discussion

exelero

Original Poster:

1,890 posts

88 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Hello everyone.
For the past 7-8 months I’m munching miles up and down the country in a HGV, therefore I see a lot of broken down cars on the motorway. Funny thing is they all seem to be new or nearly new (69 plate and above). Now there is a whole bunch of reasons why a car could be stranded on the hard shoulder or emergency area ranging from a flat tyre to God knows what.
According to my observation BMW leads the unreliability race, closely followed by VW and Mercedes. In these months I only ever saw two Lexuses broken down, one of them was about 25 years old.


So what’s the deal with all these new cars breaking down? I would’ve thought people are buying new cars for reliability and yet they keep breaking down?

WonkeyDonkey

2,333 posts

102 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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I guess it's just teething issues with new cars. Certain parts not torqued correctly or manufacturing defects showing their face early in its life.


Baldchap

7,507 posts

91 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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New cars are generally very reliable.

Pica-Pica

13,621 posts

83 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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You probably only see the brands that do the most motorway mileages.

finlo

3,731 posts

202 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Non of those brands have ever been particularly reliable just a myth that has been perpetuated through time.

TameRacingDriver

18,048 posts

271 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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tonyg58

355 posts

198 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Too big and complex = breakdown problems.

Had Aygos as town cars for 10 years now.
Total number of electrical/mechanical faults = Zero.

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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It’s not really a relevant comparison unless you look at how many cars have been sold.

BMW, Merc and VW are massive sellers particularly to fleet markers and user/choosers.

It’s like saying you see a lot of BMWs at motorway petrol stations, so they must have really poor fuel economy.

e-honda

8,829 posts

145 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Which cars do you expect to see doing motorway miles, particularly outside of peak hours?
Would it be BMW closely followed by VW and Mercedes ?

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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TameRacingDriver said:
The average mileage of an MX5 will probably be about a third of that of an average 320d or Passat TDi, so any problems , all things equal , will take 3x as long to show up.

TameRacingDriver

18,048 posts

271 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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Cliffe60 said:
TameRacingDriver said:
The average mileage of an MX5 will probably be about a third of that of an average 320d or Passat TDi, so any problems , all things equal , will take 3x as long to show up.
To be fair I've had 2 ancient MX5s and nothing went wrong with those either, quite a few miles on both. Seriously robust little machines. I'd wager they are definitely more reliable than the average BMW (had several) or VW. Quite simply bog all to go wrong on them, and most Japanese cars tend to be more reliable on average, in my experience.

NMNeil

5,860 posts

49 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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tonyg58 said:
Too big and complex = breakdown problems.
This explanation of the Mercedes CAN system may show just how complex the electronics in a car are these days.
One system going bad often causes multiple other systems to shut down, even though they have nothing to do with the original fault.
http://www.carlogic.org/bg/data/MB%20CAN(ICC).pdf
Supposedly 40% of the cost of a new car is the electrical system.

fido

16,752 posts

254 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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TameRacingDriver said:
To be fair I've had 2 ancient MX5s and nothing went wrong with those either, quite a few miles on both. Seriously robust little machines. I'd wager they are definitely more reliable than the average BMW (had several) or VW. Quite simply bog all to go wrong on them, and most Japanese cars tend to be more reliable on average, in my experience.
Yep, even basic stuff like switches go wrong in German cars - they are good to look but not tested to destruction.

SidewaysSi

10,742 posts

233 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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fido said:
TameRacingDriver said:
To be fair I've had 2 ancient MX5s and nothing went wrong with those either, quite a few miles on both. Seriously robust little machines. I'd wager they are definitely more reliable than the average BMW (had several) or VW. Quite simply bog all to go wrong on them, and most Japanese cars tend to be more reliable on average, in my experience.
Yep, even basic stuff like switches go wrong in German cars - they are good to look but not tested to destruction.
MX5s rust for fun which is arguably worse and potentially more expensive to fix.

Driver101

14,376 posts

120 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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It's extremely rare to see a modern car breaking down on the motorway. To manage to establish which brands breakdown more is an amazing feat.

The reliability surveys don't help either. The vast majority of issues reported aren't breakdown issues.

_Hoppers

1,176 posts

64 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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Driver101 said:
It's extremely rare to see a modern car breaking down on the motorway. To manage to establish which brands breakdown more is an amazing feat.
Confirmation bias by the OP?

exelero

Original Poster:

1,890 posts

88 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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_Hoppers said:
Confirmation bias by the OP?
I might be biased, but it’s not extremely rare to see new cars broken down. I do about 3-400 miles a day and see plenty of them pulled over on the hard shoulder.

exelero

Original Poster:

1,890 posts

88 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
quotequote all
e-honda said:
Which cars do you expect to see doing motorway miles, particularly outside of peak hours?
Would it be BMW closely followed by VW and Mercedes ?
Probably yes.

ExPat2B

2,157 posts

199 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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The fault cycle for almost any manufactured product is an inverse bell curve.

You will see a peak at the beginning, where anything that was not made correctly will break when used under real world conditions, then a dip in the middle of the lifecycle where everything works and is not yet worn, and then a peak at the end as parts wear out and usage damage accumulates.

croyde

22,702 posts

229 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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Of all the cars I've ever owned, my most expensive one was the most unreliable. Twice it even broke down on a family holiday and had to be towed home.

Land Rover Discovery 3.

Of all my watches, mainly costing £50 or so, my most expensive one kept breaking down.

A Tag Heuer.

I now drive a Dacia Duster, £10.5k new, and wear an automatic watch from Argos, £20, which has been going strong for 10 years.

So the answer, keep it simple.