If you ever wanted to know which car to choose in terms of reliability, car warranty provider Warranties Direct provides a yearly survey listing how reliable various car makers are. The most reliable car overall is the Toyota Corolla followed by the Suzuki Alto and the Honda HR-V but if you look solely at offerings from Europe, its the Peugeot 207 which is the pick of the crop.
While the Corolla has a reliability index of 4 100 being the average the French hatchback scores a respectable 22. But the incident rate is only 6 percent which translates into only 1 of 17 cars breaking down in an average year.
In second place amongst European cars we find the Fiat Panda while the Peugeot also takes third spot with the 206 cc ahead of the Volkswagen Polo and the Renault Clio.
The Peugeot 207 is however quite expensive to repair as compared to the other cars in the top ten list should it break down. Average repair cost for the 207 is 331.92 while for the 206 CC its only 185.40. This suggests that if the 207 does break down its usually a more serious fault than youd find with its rivals. The cheapest car to repair overall is the Renault Clio with an average cost of repair of 173.40. But the incident rate is 21 percent, much higher than the 6 percent reported for the Peugeot 207.
The least reliable European car is the Mercedes-Benz SL where 47 percent of the SL models covered by Warranty Direct recorded a fault; 36% of those where suspension-related. Repairing a Mercedes is also costly with an average repair cost of 742.10, significantly more than many of the cars in its class.
So although it might surprise people to find its a Frenchman and not a German topping the most reliable car list, the numbers speak for themselves. Next time youre out looking at
used cars, Tunbridge Wells or other places, make sure to check out any Peugeots you see. It might just prove to be a great economic choice now and in the long run.
