One thing the majority of car owners come to learn one way or the other over their years behind the wheel is that, expensive cars and premium nameplates do not necessarily equate reliability.

Often, it’s quite the opposite, actually, and this holds true in a new survey of 38 manufacturers and 50,000 live Warranty Direct policies on three to eight-year old vehicles, according to research by UK car magazine “What Car?” and UK provider of extended warranties, “Warranty Direct”.

We’ll start with the makers that shined in the survey like Honda, which for the eighth consecutive year, took first place as the most reliable used car manufacturer in the UK achieving a Reliability Index (noted as RI in the list below – the lower the RI, the more reliable the car, with 100 being the average) of 39.

Asian manufacturers dominated the study of the most reliable brands taking eight of the 10 top spots, with Chevrolet and Ford braking coming in 7th and 9th respectively.

“Honda’s success in the reliability stakes is down to low failure rates, and when cars do go wrong they’re easy and cheap to fix,” stated What Car? editor-in-chief Chas Hallett.

At the other end of the study, we find two British carmakers occupying the last two spots, including Bentley with an RI of 482 and Land Rover with 325.

“The manufacturers at the bottom end of the table could learn a thing or two from their Japanese counterparts,” commented Hallett.

The research also mentioned the most reliable models in the UK market.

“Overall, the most reliable models are the Mitsubishi Lancer and Vauxhall Agila, both of which also star as the cheapest to repair,” said the author of the study. “The least reliable model is the Audi RS6 but the iconic Porsche 911 is the most expensive to fix, with an eye-watering average repair bill of £1157.04.”

We’re also told about the most common failures in used cars: “Electrical faults are the most common across all cars, with almost a quarter (23.5%) needing a visit to the garage in an average year. Axle and suspension faults are also common, affecting 22% of cars.”

Last December, Warranty Direct had come out with a list of the 10 Most and 10 Least Reliable cars sold in the UK the past 15 years, and which you can check out for yourself by visiting / clicking the respective links above.

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