ist schon interessant was man hört, wenn man mal nicht duetsche Zeitschriften zitiert oder !gruebel!
German cars shock in reliability survey
05/08/2004 07:32
German cars are among the most likely to develop faults or break down, while Japanese and Korean makes were the most reliable, according to a survey of British motorists published on Thursday.
Audi, BMW and Volkswagen were all rated poor for reliability in the study by the Consumers' Association.
"German cars have always been expensive, but our survey reveals a worrying drop in reliability that makes them look distinctly overpriced," said Malcolm Coles, editor of the Consumers' Association magazine Which? whose readers took part in the survey
"Audi, BMW and VW may be the choice of more badge-conscious buyers, but owners of Japanese cars are far less likely to spend time on the hard shoulder or face hefty garage bills."
Least reliable car for the second year running was Audi's sporty TT model. Out of 43 owners with a TT up to 2 years old, 21% reported that their car had broken down in the past 12 months.
Next least-reliable was the E-Class from 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, Mazda's 323 and Toyota's Corolla and Corolla Verso models.
Close behind, with 99% reliability, were the Honda Civic, the CR-V and Jazz, as well as the Mazda 6, Peugeot 406 and 406 Coupe.
The Consumers' Association gathered information on 34 277 cars up to eight years old from Which? readers.
Not agreeing
Brands which dropped from average last year to poor this time were: Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Daewoo and Saab. They joined Citroen, Fiat, Land Rover, Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Vauxhall and VW already in the bottom category.
The manufacturers ranked as excellent this year were: Honda, Hyundai, Lexus, Mazda, Toyota and Suzuki.
Duncan Forrester, media relations manager at BMW UK, said the findings don't "correlate with our experience."
"Our history, which relates to 100% of BMW cars, doesn't suggest that reliability and breakdowns are getting worse. On the contrary, we find it is improving quite considerably," he said.
Sample sizes in the survey varied widely, from as few as 30 for the Hyundai Getz to 495 for the Ford Focus.
Audi said its 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," Audi said in a statement.