UK survey questions German car reliability

German cars are among the most likely to develop faults or break down, according to a survey of owners published in Britain today.

Audi, BMW and Volkswagen were all rated “poor” for reliability in the study by the Consumers’ Association.

In contrast, cars from Japanese and Korean manufacturers scored among the highest with drivers.

The survey found money does not always buy trouble-free motoring, with expensive models among the least reliable.

Bottom for the second year running was Audi’s sporty TT model. Of 43 owners with a TT up to two years old, 21% said their car had broken down in the past 12 months.

Second to last was the E-Class from German car maker Mercedes Benz, with 16% of the 44 examples in the survey needing attention in the past year.

Among the most reliable cars was Hyundai’s Getz. None of the 30 in the survey had broken down in the past year.

The same was true for MG’s ZT and ZT-T, Mazda’s 323 and Toyota’s Corolla and Corolla Verso models.

Close behind, with 99% reliability, were the Honda Civic, CR-V and Jazz, plus the Mazda 6, and Peugeot 406 and 406 Coupe.

The UK's Consumers’ Association gathered information on 34,277 cars up to eight years old from readers of its magazine Which?

Owners were asked to comment on breakdowns, faults or “niggles” with their car in the past 12 months.

Malcolm Coles, editor of Britain's Which?, said: “German cars have always been expensive, but our survey reveals a worrying drop in reliability that makes them look distinctly over-priced.”

Duncan Forrester, UK media relations manager at BMW, said: “It is an interesting survey and one that comes out every year.

“The findings this year, based on 1,388 BMW cars, doesn’t correlate with our experience.

“Our history, which relates to 100% BMW cars, doesn’t suggest that reliability and break downs are getting worse. On the contrary, we find it is improving quite considerably.”

Paul Buckett, head of press and public relations at VW, also questioned the findings of the survey.

“The sample size for the survey is very small,” he said. "It is also very curious to us that the VW Bora is classed near the top for reliability and the Golf, which is technically almost identical, is low down.”

A Mercedes spokesman said: “We recognise that surveys like this raise awareness about reliability. However, the findings here contradict those from other quality reports elsewhere.”

In a statement, Audi said: “Audi reliability figures have been temporarily low due to an exceptional and unique ignition coil problem which was rectified for production of cars during 2003.

“The widely used 1.8 T engine is one of the affected units, and as it powers all but two TT models and several A4 versions has caused a specific downturn for these cars.

“The Audi brand reliability level for current models normally falls very close to, or better than, the 94% average of the most recent Which? report.”