What a Car - UK - (2020-04)

40 April 2020 whatcar.com

Older used

cars rated

for reliability

How dependable are cars as they get older? Here’s what the

owners of cars between six and 15 years of age have told us

Reliability

Survey

In association with

Buying a new car is usually a reasonably safe prospect; if

anything goes wrong, the chances are the cost of getting

it xed will be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Step

outside of the new car market, though, and the risks are

higher. The majority of warranties last for only three years,

and most owners stop paying out for franchised dealer

servicing once cars are four or ve years old. So, if you

don’t choose carefully, you could buy a car that hasn’t

been well maintained and might suffer a costly fault.

However, you can signicantly reduce the chances of

buying a money-pit used car by choosing a reliable make

and model. The best older cars suffer almost no faults at

all, even when they’re up to 15 years old, and in some

cases issues are resolved for free, even though the cars

are out of warranty. In contrast, faults occur in more than

half of the least dependable models, with many repair

bills exceeding £1500, according to the annual What Car?

Reliability Survey. On an older car, those costs could even

exceed the car’s value.

Our survey covers the ownership experiences of 18,119

motorists over a 12-month period, spanning 31 makes and

218 models. Here, we’re focusing on cars aged six to 15

years old. Many are the type of car you might be thinking

of buying as a second family car or a rst car for a new

driver, so their dependability is a prime concern.

We asked car owners to tell us what went wrong with

their car, grouping the faults into 14 different areas: air

conditioning, battery, bodywork, brakes, engine, engine

electrics, exhaust, fuel system, gearbox, interior trim,

non-engine electrics, sat-nav, steering and suspension.

To come up with our unique reliability ratings, which are

expressed as a percentage, the two main areas we looked

at were how long each faulty car took to be xed and how

much owners had to pay out for repair bills.

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