Cars are complicated machines made out of thousands of parts that, even when their owners take great care of them and follow the user and service manuals religiously, sometimes go wrong. After all, that’s what warranties are for.
Of course, warranties at some point expire, and while a light bulb or something equally minor may be of little concern, the engine is a completely different, much more scary and costly issue.
“Engine failures are the biggest fear for any motorist as they’re the ones that can lead to the most astronomical costs because of their parts and hours of labor required to fix them”, said UK’s Warranty Direct managing director Duncan McClure Fisher.
“The number of failures may be low compared to areas such as axle and suspension damage, but engine repairs almost always result in costs reaching in the thousands for motorists who aren’t covered by a warranty”, he added.
Warranty Direct’s study of 50,000 live consumer policies shows some interesting facts. Perhaps chief amongst them is that German manufacturers’ engine reliability isn’t exactly what it’s supposed to be - even for premium manufacturers…
Audi, for example, was the second worst “offender”, with 1 in 27 owners reporting an engine problem; the only manufacturer who did worse was the, now defunct, MG Rover with 1 in 13 – but then again, the British carmaker never had a reputation for reliability…
BMW’s MINI is third, with 1 in 40 vehicles having engine issues, while BMW itself is seventh and VW is ninth.
Warranty Direct also studied the cost of engine repairs. A Range Rover Vogue with an engine failure recently led to the insurer’s highest claim ever: £12,998.46 (US $20,642), while a dealer quoted £14,853.60 (US$23,588) to repair a destroyed engine on a Range Rover Sport.
On the other side of the spectrum, Honda was the clear winner with only 1 in 344 owners reporting engine troubles, followed by Toyota with 1 in 171, and surprisingly, Mercedes-Benz with 1 in 119.
You can read the 10 least and most reliable engine manufacturers in the UK market after the break. Meanwhile, bear in mind about the following figures: the second-hand car you spotted at the classified ads may have a price that makes you want to reach for your wallet; the question is, can you cope with such an issue?
By Andrew Tsaousis
29 Comments:
Holy moly! I'd really like to see where they all ranked, but this is an eyeopener.
Yeah, "Mercedes's engines has always been bullet proof as," Jay Leno says. But as for electronics department they fall completely short.
shame on you bmw shame on you
'eye opener?"
lol what rock have you been living under? German Engines are known for their poor reliability. Which is why I would only lease a German car as oppose to buying one. I have friends with BMW and Lexus automobiles. And with no surprise, the BMW owners report the most issues.
Should have clarified further, but the eye opener is Honda. Statically, Honda is significant. I've never leased a vehicle in my life, even for tax/business purposes.
WIth this headline, I expected a list of engines... not their makers :(
i call BS
there are no figures relating to the age of the vehicles at hand
and of course, the "newest" MG rover you can buy is a 56 plate (meaning it was made between 1-sept '06 and 28-feb 07) comparing that new a brand new Honda is going to skew the results
and from personal experience, my mum has a e93 335i which we have had from brand new (nov '09 model) and yes, that has had a few engine troubles (head being clogged up with crap, so nothing new from the I6 engine...) and my dad has got a early '10 mk6 golf diesel and there has been NO problems with it what so ever, and i mean nothing
However, being a VW driver, i know for a fact that VW's from the '98-'04 era are renowned for their problems; water pumps, window regulators and especially gearboxes
so from this, i feel the the results aren't showing what really is going on
but don't get my wrong, I'm not saying that German cars the best, nor am i saying that a car from anything other region is better or worse
I'm just stating that these results should be categorised into year groups to show what is really going on
Honda may be first in engine reliability, but their transmissions SUCK!!!
Honda and Toyota, the "two most reliable", have had a total of over 12 million recalls in 2012 alone. There is no way they are the most reliable, they make terrible cars and I can't believe anybody buys them anymore. They are just terrible, and they should be ashamed with their products.
A recall is a good thing. One part that had a production or design fualt that is discovered and replaced (even if 12million vehicles).
The real issue is having varying problems from car to car from the same assembly line.
Nobody wanna talk about audi?
LOL
bullSHIT
those recalls have nothing to do with warranty directs insurance policies... nor were they actually engine related.
im guessing you're just a bitter audi owner, who now realises he has bought an over priced rebadged vw. so you're haitng on what you wish you had!
age doesn't matter really, considering that warranty direct provide insurance policies or "extended warranties" on 2nd hand vehicles. any car with this policy usually means its now outside the manufacturers warranty period/mileage.
I really don't know what those brits do with their cars on that isle. But somehow they still hate everything what could be remotely related to Germany by any means. The world has moved on decades ago, sitting on that rock the brits just didn't get it by now.
I'd rather trust in any other statistic than a british.
Audi... because nobody realizes that the timing belt needs to be done every 60,000 miles
I always find these sorts of things suspect, because of what they don't say...
Like:
- what constitutes an "engine failure"? A coil pack failure? Throwing a rod? Any miscellaneous warranty repair involving an engine part?
- what time period do the statistics cover? As mentioned below, the MG is not exactly current, so what are they comparing?
The VAG/Audi 1.8T engines definitely had coil pack issues, but frankly that was an annoyance, and not something I would call an "engine failure", and it was 10 years ago.
I would like to see a lot more information about what was actually measured, before drawing any significant conclusions about what it means to someone looking at new case...
very nice articlw, thanks for posting! :-)
carbloggergr.blogspot.com
I also agree with Sam Wooley. The results are not showing what really is going on. Most of my mechanic friends rate BMW and Audi cars on their poor list. All depends on how people take care of their cars -> a big portion of people who drive "luxury" sedans etc like BMW/Merc/Audi have no clue about what they are driving and how to take care of those cars. A professor I once knew drove a Jaguar S-type. She had no idea that her breaks were basically so worn down that they were not there! So all in all it really depends on the drivers ability to take care of their car.
@Guest
Is that why the roads in Britain are crammed with German cars sh#thead? Get your facts straight before you put mouth (or keyboard) into action!
Recals were not because of engine malfunctions. Which is being stated here. Nobody wants your useless opinion and please learn to stay in topic
...And Car Warranty covers only those parts which are not in use frequently. Clutch, brake pads, electricals.. all mostly fall out of warranty. The engine smoothness, Gear ratios, torque delivery in city and freeway driving, reliability of the frequently used parts are the best in Honda and Toyota-Lexus with Lexus being the best.
They are made like Japanese.
First there were over 500,000 Accords recalled in October 2012 due to a problem with the engines lighting on fire. Thats dangerous, and it was an engine problem.
Second, in November 2012 there were over 2.77 million Toyotas recalled, due to a faulty hybrid system that would stop the cars from working. Another engine problem. You really don't like facts do you...
That is just the tip of the iceberg, of their combined 35 million recalls over the past four years.
Third, actually yes I do own an Audi and I have owned many, and never had a problem, what kind of childish argument is that, that you made anyways.
Finally you spelled "hating" wrong.
Over 7 million of Toyota and Honda recalls have been engine related...
Volvo. For Life.
Why would they want to fake this data ? What benefit would it bring them?
Different packaging for transverse layout vs. longitudinal mounting which will results in some component changes and different turbo boost levels though the engine maybe mechanically the same.
it's wrong you must compare with the age of the models, their number in all of the cars, the miles, and a lot of things like this. For example rover does not exist anymore, these cars are old so they have more problems... It's stupid to compare rovers with modern cars (they have bmw and honda motors so why honda is so good and not rover ? It's stupid ! ).
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