British workers build great cars

What Car? in association with Warranty Direct have today revealed that British workers are still tops for long term reliability and affordability – half of the cars in the top-10 are British built.

What Car? in association with Warranty Direct have today revealed that British workers are still tops for long term reliability and affordability – half of the cars in the top-10 are British built.

Steve Fowler, What Car? editor, said: “The annual reliability survey is a thorough and helpful guide that should be a key part of the decision-making process for any car buyer, whatever their budget and it’s great to see so many British built cars doing so well.”

The survey of 111 models revealed that Japanese manufacturers top the charts again with Honda keeping hold of its number one position, closely followed by Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota.

Congratulations are also due to the thousands of British workers responsible for building some of the most reliable cars on our roads today. The Honda Accord, which was top, was built here until 2002 and the Honda Civic, which finished runner up, was also constructed in the UK.

Other British-built cars in the top ten are the Nissan Micra in 5th and the Jaguar X-type in 7th. The Oxfordshire-built Mini is ranked 8th in the survey and with the new Mini appearing in showrooms shortly, the used Mini is a great buy.

The now defunct Rover would have been proud to see a couple of their vehicles fare well: the 45 finished 11th and the 25 was a couple of places down in 13th place overall.

“It is possible to improve the reliability of your car, simply by being kind to it – follow the service schedule and keep on top of routine maintenance. Be suspicious of any strange noises or unusual handling and get them investigated – they could be the start of something expensive,” commented Steve Fowler.

38,000 vehicles were surveyed with an average age of 4.9 years.

Top 10 Vehicles

1 Honda Accord (99-03)
2 Honda Civic (96-01)
3 Lexus IS (99-05)
4 Volvo S40 (96-04)
5 Nissan Micra (98-02)
6 Volvo V40 (96-04)
7 Jaguar X-Type (01)
8 Mini (01)
9 Peugeot 106 (96-04)
10 BMW 3-Series (94-01)


Bottom 10 Vehicles

102 Fiat Coupe (95-01)
103 Saab 9-5 (97-01)
104 Land Rover Range Rover (95-02)
105 Jaguar XK8 (96-06)
106 Land Rover Freelander (00-06)
107 Land Rover Freelander (97-00)
108 Audi TT (99-06)
109 Fiat Multipla (99-04)
110 Renault Laguna (00)
111 Renault Espace (97-02)