Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Japanese cars make motorists happy but French cars backfire
Japanese cars make their owners happy but some French cars drive them to distraction, says Which? Car.
Five of the top 10 cars in the Which? Car owners' satisfaction table are Japanese: the current Mazda MX-5 (3rd with a customer satisfaction score** of 96%); Mazda MX-5 (1998-2005, 5th, 96%); Honda Jazz (6th, 95%); Toyota Yaris Verso (2000-2005, 7th, 95%); and Honda Jazz (2002-2008, 9th, 94%).
At the top of the table is the Audi A5 with an owner satisfaction score of 97%. Owners love its looks and performance despite it being the least dependable new sports / coupé with a reliability*** score of 76% (the joint least-reliable new car overall along with the current Ford Galaxy).
Other German cars also perform well in the satisfaction stakes with another two in the top 10: the Porsche Boxster (4th, 96%) and the Audi TT (8th, 94%). The Czech Skoda Superb (2002-2008) lives up to its name in second place with an impressive 96%, while the popular Italian Fiat 500 is tenth with 94%.
Down at the bottom of the table, six of the least popular 10 cars are French, including four Renaults, a Peugeot and a Citroën.
Bottom of the pile is the Renault Espace (1997-2003) with 57%. Owners of other Renaults aren't terribly impressed either. The Mégane (1996-2003) is described as "a pile of rubbish"; the Laguna (2001-2007) as "an impulse buy. regretted ever since"; and the Espace as a "fantastic car, if only it would work for longer than a month at a time."
Which? Car editor, Richard Headland, says:
"It's no surprise that owners love their Japanese cars. They're reliable, reasonably priced and cheap to run. But down in the Which? Car hall of shame, owners of some French cars seem to be less than enamoured with their motors.
"It's the honeymoon period for the relatively new Audi A5 - smitten owners may soon fall out of love with it if reliability doesn't improve."
**During January 2009, 77,000 Which? members reported on how satisfied they'd been with their cars over the past 12 months. This gave data on 84,119 cars up to eight years old (making it the biggest and most detailed car survey in the UK). Expressed as percentages, these figures give an instant picture of how happy people have been with their cars.
***An overall reliability score is based on the number of breakdowns, faults and niggles reported by owners (but heavily weighted towards breakdowns). Breakdowns are classed as 'something that leaves you unable to drive the car', faults 'a part failure that required a visit to the car dealer or local garage to fix' and niggles 'less urgent breakages or failures'.
DATED: 22.09.09
FEED: AW
