What is the worst reviewed new car in the UK?

[sandman77]

Whilst looking at what cars we can replace the wife's car with I came across the Vauxhall Antara. For a 12 month old car it looked like cracking value for money compared with the Ford Kuga, Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai.

I then read a couple of reviews on it and found myself surprised at just bad it was.

Anyway, are there any new cars available in the UK that get worse reviews than this?

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/vauxhall/antara...

[V8forweekends]

Well, there's always the Chevy Captiva, which is essentially the same car -

http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/chevrolet/captiv...

ETA not much love on What Car for the Perodua myvi

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/perodua/myvi-ha...

[Bonefish Blues]

Owner review:

There really isn't enough space here to tell you how utterly rubbish my Antara is and how many different things have gone wrong or are bad with it. It…

Lee England
1 out of 5 stars


The Vauxhall will probably take the prize, I think

[bobfett]

Ford Ecosport was pretty bad IIRC, something to do with it being an international car?

Also Mitsubishi Mirage and possibly Nissan Micra? Also both international cars, and a big step back from their predecessors...

[Sir Fergie]

Well failing to brake from 80 mph on a magazine test won't help the new Suzuki Celerio

http://www.carthrottle.com/post/the-suzuki-celerio...

Aside from that - Protons

[IanCress]

Sir Fergie said:

Well failing to brake from 80 mph on a magazine test won't help the new Suzuki Celerio

http://www.carthrottle.com/post/the-suzuki-celerio...

Aside from that - Protons

According to this report, Suzuki replaced the first car, and the 2nd car exhibited the exact same failure!

[Sir Fergie]

bobfett said:

Ford Ecosport was pretty bad IIRC, something to do with it being an international car?

Also Mitsubishi Mirage and possibly Nissan Micra? Also both international cars, and a big step back from their predecessors...

The issue from what I can see is that manufacturers are building a model of car for the WORLD market - so the same car is offered in lots of different countries.

This is instead of the scenario where you build one vehicle for the US - and another for Europe

The difficulty is they are designing down to a price for markets like Brazil/Asia - rather then developing the Euro standard for Brazil and Asia.

The Mk 1 Mondeo was also built to be a world wide car - BUT us Europeans got the benefit of a car designed for Europe - it wasn't quite so suited to the American market

[BugLebowski]

The Suzuki Jimny tends to get really negative reviews in the press, unfairly IMO as its a cracking little thing. However if you were to buy it, expecting a tiguan/kuga/qashqai type crossover ride, you would be badly disappointed. It's an old fashioned off road vehicle with a ladder frame, solid front and rear axles and part time 4wd and it handles accordingly.

It also doesn't help that it is rear wheel drive in normal use, which in a short wheel base, light, tall vehicle is a recipe for fun. They are amazing off road however! In fact Im thinking about getting one purely to stop the dogs stinking up the land cruiser!

[Sir Fergie]

IanCress said:

According to this report, Suzuki replaced the first car, and the 2nd car exhibited the exact same failure!

Its a nightmare for Suzuki really.

Youd imagine that a test fleet for a new model of car like this would all have been produced in the same batch (all part of the same order at the factory).

So the best case scenario for Suzuki is that its some issue that just affected a small batch of cars that these 2 cars were part off.

I very much doubt its that simple though

[Mafffew]

BugLebowski said:

The Suzuki Jimny tends to get really negative reviews in the press, unfairly IMO as its a cracking little thing. However if you were to buy it, expecting a tiguan/kuga/qashqai type crossover ride, you would be badly disappointed. It's an old fashioned off road vehicle with a ladder frame, solid front and rear axles and part time 4wd and it handles accordingly.

It also doesn't help that it is rear wheel drive in normal use, which in a short wheel base, light, tall vehicle is a recipe for fun. They are amazing off road however! In fact Im thinking about getting one purely to stop the dogs stinking up the land cruiser!

Had a little Jimmy to bomb around Greece last year while on holiday. I thought it was a bit of a laugh! Would never buy one though.

[C.A.R.]

On the Vauxhall front, I recently hired a Mokka. That was an awful experience! There was a rattle coming from somewhere in the cabin and the interior heater fan constantly buzzed like it was out of balance. The car had just over 1500 miles on it!

On another front, the Fiat 500L - a car which is popularised by its' appearance (which is surprising as it's a bloody eyesore) I didn't rate it at all. Again, sub-10,000 miles were on the rental and it already had squeeks, rattles and a vague 'dead area' in the steering. There was also the issue with the speakers - they sounded terrible and one of the rear ones had 'blown' already. Did I mention that it was an insult on the eyes too?!

[Sir Fergie]

Id still say the Protons are pretty bad going by reviews though.

Even the pre brake failure initial reviews of the Celerio seemed better then what Protons get.

Its surprising that Proton never seemed to get on the same track of improvement as the Koreans did - as they all seemed to start off from the same level back in the mid to late 80s.

In saying that one or 3 of their models had Lotus involvement in the ride/handling/driving and are okay (Satria GTi springs to mind)

Historically - the Mk 5 1990 Escort got very bad press - which led to a complete rethink at Ford - resulting in the Mk 1 Mondeo and Focus.

The new Mondeo is getting a lukewarm reception too depending on what articles you read

[anonymous-user]

sandman77 said:

Whilst looking at what cars we can replace the wife's car with I came across the Vauxhall Antara. For a 12 month old car it looked like cracking value for money compared with the Ford Kuga, Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai.

I then read a couple of reviews on it and found myself surprised at just bad it was.

Anyway, are there any new cars available in the UK that get worse reviews than this?

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/vauxhall/antara...

A guy who works in the office next to ours has an Antara. In the 6 months he's had it I've seen the AA outside 3 times, and for some bizarre reason he gives it a £25 valet every week.

[Johnnytheboy]

Autocar gave the original Daewoo Matiz 0/5 because Daewoo wouldn't let them do a reverse hairpin turn, so Autocar ruled the test incomplete.

[Bonefish Blues]

IanCress said:

Sir Fergie said:

Well failing to brake from 80 mph on a magazine test won't help the new Suzuki Celerio

http://www.carthrottle.com/post/the-suzuki-celerio...

Aside from that - Protons

According to this report, Suzuki replaced the first car, and the 2nd car exhibited the exact same failure!

How do you recover from that I wonder?

[andburg]

The Mk4 escort was pretty much slated...but i dont recall it being a sales failure

[sparkyhx]

sandman77 said:

http://www.whatcar.com/car-reviews/vauxhall/antara...

harsh

[Troubleatmill]

Although this was in the early 80's - when the FSO Polonez originally came out.
The "What Car" review had the following.

Good Point: The walnut capped door handles.

Bad Point: What they are attached to.

[sparkyhx]

BugLebowski said:

The Suzuki Jimny tends to get really negative reviews in the press, unfairly IMO as its a cracking little thing. However if you were to buy it, expecting a tiguan/kuga/qashqai type crossover ride, you would be badly disappointed. It's an old fashioned off road vehicle with a ladder frame, solid front and rear axles and part time 4wd and it handles accordingly.

It would be like expecting a LR Defender to be like a Discovery.

Also Proton and Perudia your expectations would be low. You would expect more of a VX though

[Sir Fergie]

Johnnytheboy said:

Autocar gave the original Daewoo Matiz 0/5 because Daewoo wouldn't let them do a reverse hairpin turn, so Autocar ruled the test incomplete.

I remember the Matiz having controversy alright.

Was under the impression that Autocar DID actually do the reverse test - and the car went on its side - and Daewoo put a speed limter for reverse gear to address the issue.

The A class had issues with the infamous Elk test incident too.