What's the news?
"What Car?", the UK consumer motoring magazine, has released the results of its 2018 reliability survey and it's good news for Toyota Yaris and Suzuki SX4 S-Cross owners, as both of those models achieved a perfect 100 per cent score. It's an extensive survey looking at 159 models from 31 different brands and, according to the data, "around 30 per cent of the 18,284 survey respondents with cars less than four years old said their car had suffered at least one fault in the past 12 months."
The results of the survey make for interesting reading and do confirm the long-held maxim of Japanese reliability with the Yaris and SX4 as the two most reliable models, while Suzuki, Lexus, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Subaru are all in the top-six most reliable brands, number three being Kia. One thing that does rather blow old prejudices out of the water is a highly respectable eighth place in the line-up of most reliable cars (1-4 years old) for Alfa Romeo, previously a byword for breakdowns. Alfa is one of just three European manufacturers in the top-ten with Skoda and SEAT placing seventh and tenth respectively.
Electric cars appear to run the whole gamut of the reliability stakes with the Nissan Leaf achieving a 99.7 per cent score making it the third most reliable car overall. At the opposite end of the scale sits the Tesla Model S, the least reliable car tested with a score of 50.9 per cent, largely down to bits of the bodywork breaking or falling off and faulty non-engine electrics. It's quite a sorry story for Land Rover as well with its models making up three of the bottom five alongside the Tesla and the Ford Edge diesel, the standard Range Rover scoring just 67.3 per cent with the Evoque and Discovery Sport also placing poorly. The rest of the bottom five is made up by Jeep, Jaguar and, surprisingly, Nissan.
A brief breakdown of the most and least reliable cars surveyed by category are as follows:
City and Small Cars:
Toyota Yaris petrol - 100 per cent
Peugeot 208 - 81.4 per cent
Family Cars:
Hyundai i30 - 98.9 per cent
Peugeot 308 - 81.5 per cent
Executive Cars:
Volvo V60 - 99.3 per cent
Mercedes-Benz C-Class - 83.1 per cent
Luxury Cars:
Mercedes-Benz E-Class - 92.4 per cent
Jaguar XF - 81.9 per cent
Small SUVs:
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross - 100 per cent
Citroen C4 Cactus - 82.5 per cent
Family SUVs:
Kia Sportage - 97.8 per cent
Nissan Qashqai diesel - 79.7 per cent
Large and Luxury SUVs:
Toyota RAV4 - 99.6 per cent
Range Rover - 67.3 per cent
MPVs:
Mercedes-Benz B-Class - 95.9 per cent
Citroen C4 Picasso - 86.2 per cent
Electric Cars:
Nissan Leaf - 99.7 per cent
Tesla Model S - 50.9 per cent
Coupes, Convertibles and Sports Cars:
BMW 2 Series - 97 per cent
Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe/Cabriolet - 89.1 per cent