Other marque's reliability...

Most reliable car I've owned: A 1979 MkII Escort 1.3 The car was a year older than me, drove it for 7 years without a single mechanical breakdown. Got through the usual exhausts and tyres but never failed to start. Bought it for £250 and after 7 years of happy (albeit slightly slow) motoring, flogged it for £250.

Now that's what I call a good car, zero faults, zero depreciation. Why oh why did I sell it?

To experience the 'racey' performance of an Alfa?:

Originally Posted by zulu ferret

Bet you guys have read that Whopper of a story, concerning 'E' class front cross members corroding, '96 -02' Argh!!:

That reminds me of the guy over the road who had a merc (E-class coupe I think) about 1994 so at the time just over 10 years old, and he scrapped it as the wiring loom totally burnt out, which apparently is quite common and with all the gizmos a tad difficult to replace.

Quite a sorry bunch of motors around out there, if you care to look.:

Originally Posted by Nev

And Citroen the 10th best marque? No way!.


What we really need to see is the manufacturer's
warranty figures. (Fat chance.) As I would assume that most
problems (ones due to build quality and manufacturing errors)
are fixed in the 1st 2 years.


Also remember that failures on a product follow a "bathtub"
curve with most failures occurring during the start of
a product's life cycle (infant mortality) and at the end (wear out).



So selling warranties for the flat middle section of
the curve is damn profitable. (Surprise, surprise)

I completely agree with you Nev, that selling warranties in the mid-section of the curve is profitable. That's my point - as Warranty Direct do not want to lose money, and favour cars in the mid-cycle of the curve, and still have pay out the amounts they do, surely there's validity there?

I am of course aware of the possible view that some aftermarket warranty companies might inflate the number of "claims" to add to premiums, but it seems unlikely they'd pick the marques that Warranty Direct are reporting as not so reliable.

2005 Skoda Octavia 1.9 & 2.0 diesel self destructing clutches.
Kia Sedona excesive rear tyre wear on inside edges.
Have found my 155 to be much more reliable than my 156, maybe the oldies are better!!!

I had my old 155V6 for nearly 4 years & the only time it let me down was when the diff went.Had my Fiat Coupe for nearly 3 1/2 years now & the only problem has been the immobiliser playing up.Got my Rover in February & the cat self-destructed after a couple of weeks .Then the head gasket went(surprise surprise),it does live a hard life though

BMW 530d Auto Sport 02plate.

2 turbo's (1 took exhaust + cats) 1xEGR, 1x body computer, 1x power steering pump, 1 xsteering rack, 1xsatnav computer 1x phone system, drivers seat mountings. - in 11months and 26Kmiles (it was 2.5 years old and at 22K when I got it).

Wife's Ford 1600 TDCi c-max in 3 years - bonnet catch jammed, and washer pump failed.

Nissan Micra old shape in 3 years it blew a brake bulb.
Missan primera GT - nothing in 3 years apart from a propensity to chew tyres.

Simes.

Just had a "lunch" meeting with my financial advisor.

Her <2 year old Astra's airconn has **** the bed
right in the middle of summer.

Originally Posted by Stori

The most unreliable car I ever owned was a genuine Morris Mini for the 1960's...British built and boy did you really know it...

I had a '66 Mini Traveller and it was mechanically totally reliable over a 2 year period in the mid seventees........I particulary liked what I took to be the large open screen washer container under the front seats (which was automatically replenished as I drove in the rain) and, with technology which was obviously ahead of its time in terms of rear packaging, the facility to pull the rear seat forward simply by applying the handbrake!

my girlfriend was involved in the warranty process for mercedes benz, needless to say it has put her off them for life, countless examples of 50 grand mercs going kaput after a few thousand miles, things not ftted properly and shocking build quality issues

my 166 is the most reliable car i have ever owned, it has never let me down, yet, touch wood but it did have a LOT of money spent on it before i owned it

Originally Posted by jabberwocky

my 166 is the most reliable car i have ever owned, it has never let me down, yet, touch wood but it did have a LOT of money spent on it before i owned it

I'm afraid my 166 was BY FAR the least reliable of my Alfas , but it was just a 2.0TS

Originally Posted by Stori

The most unreliable car I ever owned was a genuine Morris Mini for the 1960's...British built and boy did you really know it...

Yep I agree, my boyfriend had a cooper s and every weekend he was hauling the engine out , seems they had a strike happening in the factory all the time so you never knew what part had been missed or ? when it was being put together.

However, I did learn alot about cars and engines

Originally Posted by classicgal93

Yep I agree, my boyfriend had a cooper s and every weekend he was hauling the engine out , seems they had a strike happening in the factory all the time so you never knew what part had been missed or ? when it was being put together.

However, I did learn alot about cars and engines

That must have been in the mid to late seventies?

Yes it was a 69 mini, we had it in 73/74

Originally Posted by classicgal93

Yes it was a 69 mini, we had it in 73/74

Ahh - actually I meant the car, as the quality of British Leyland products went down during the time of the three-day week

Originally Posted by Gary Slegg

Ahh - actually I meant the car, as the quality of British Leyland products went down during the time of the three-day week

I meant the car too what did you think I meant?

I meant that the car was a mid-seventies car (i.e., not a 69 model) - rather then when you owned it

Hyundai Accent MVI 1.5-Our last car,in 8 years of ownership it only ever needed consumables (70,000 miles) .Most reliable motor I've ever known.Still on original exhaust!

out of the cars ive owned, bmw,s range rovers (vauxhauls, company cars) nissans navara pick up,. by far the worst are my alfas but still love them ,the best was my navara, cant exsplain the alfa thing , but hope the italian style and german build will make things better.

Here's my reliability experience,
1991 Lotus Elan se turbo: first day of ownership gear linkage broke leaving me stranded. Turbo wastegate stuck. Roof leaked like a seive so it had to go.

1994 Maserati Shamal: in 2 years of ownership engine management light had a mind of its own and after at least 10 hours of diagnostics at great cost no fault found. Both exhaust manifolds cracked. Two broken differentials again at massive cost. Then a maser specialist I took the car to very kindly crashed it for me. Took nine months to have car rebuilt and sold it straight away.

1994 Ferrari 348 spider: Only thing that went wrong in 3 years of ownership was the cats failed so had to have both replaced for MOT. Had a few niggles with aircon fail messages but it worked anyway. Usually just put hood down and drove faster to get cool!

Alfa 146 ti : central locking and alarm problems solved by taking out the fuse. Don't bother locking it cos I don't think its worth nicking...only does trackdays now as replaced as family wagon by.....

Alfa 156 v6 sw : failed rear electric window motor otherwise good and running strong!

996 c2 cab: Only had it 7 months but seems good so far and survived 18 laps of the ring the week after i bought it. Only 1 spin and managed to miss the armco.