MG named the most unreliable used car brand as top 10 worst manufacturers revealed

7:58 am, September 26, 2024

MG has been named the most unreliable car manufacturer following a survey of nearly 30,000 owners.

What Car? quizzed 29,967 owners of used cars up to five-years-old about how often their vehicles had suffered issues the past two years.

The Reliability Survey asked how long repairs took and how much they cost to fix in order to come up with an overall score out of 100.

The higher the score, the more reliable the car brand – with MG scoring 76.9%. The Chinese outfit also had the least reliable EV – the MG4 – which received an overall mark of 63.8%.

Many MG owners complained that their cars suffered a high number of faults and repairs were slow, with some also citing high repair bills.

Joining MG in the top 10 are the likes of Alfa Romeo (84.1%), Vauxhall (84.7%) and Nissan (87.9%).

Nissan also suffered indignity of having the least reliable model in any sector, with the Juke (from 2019 onwards) scoring a pitiful 50%.

What Car? consumer editor Claire Evans said: ‘When it comes to reliability, a car’s brand is a strong indicator of how dependable it will be.

‘The lowest scoring brands have models that suffer a high percentage of problems that can keep cars off the road for weeks and result in eye-watering repair bills.’

Most unreliable car manufacturers

MG4

MG – 76.9%
Alfa Romeo – 84.1%
Vauxhall – 84.7%
Nissan – 85.9%
Land Rover – 87.1%
Seat – 87.5%
Fiat – 88.2%
Audi – 89.0%
Polestar – 89.3%
Mercedes – 89.7%

The What Car? data covers 31 brands and 199 different models.

Overall, 22% of owners said their car had experienced issues in the past 24 months, although 82% of repairs were carried out for free.

While most repair bills cost less than £500, 3% of owners had to pay out more than £1,500 to get their cars fixed. The study also found that 12% of broken down cars were undriveable, taking more than a week to fix.

Most unreliable model by sector

Electric SUVs: Vauxhall Mokka Electric (65.6%)
All EVs: MG4 (63.8%)
Small SUVs: Nissan Juke (50.0%)
Small cars: Seat Ibiza (78%)
Family cars: Volkswagen Golf Diesel (70.4%)
Executive cars: BMW 5-Series Diesel (79.8)
Coupés, convertibles and sports cars: BMW 4 Series Coupe/Convertible (79%)
Family SUVs: Kia Sportage Diesel (66.2%)
Luxury cars: Porsche Cayenne (84.6%)
Seven-seaters: Audi Q7: (80.8%)

At the other end of the scale, the UK’s most reliable car brand is Mini with a brand reliability rating of 98.3%. The outfit’s most reliable model was the Countryman with a score of 99.7% – which placed it just clear of the Mini convertible on 99.2%.

Mini toppled previous-champion Lexus from the top spot with the likes of Toyota, Suzuki and Honda marking another successful year for the ever-reliable Japanese brands.

The recently-replaced Mini Electric, which was built in Britain, was the best performing electric car, and the Tesla Model Y the highest scoring electric SUV.

The Lexus ES claimed the top spot in the executive car class with a score of 99.3%, while the 2014-2021 Lexus NX was the best family SUV and the 2016-2022 Lexus RX the top-performing luxury car.

The Lexus NX and Toyota Aygo X were also the only models to achieve a full 100% reliability rating.

Most reliable car manufacturers

An electric Mini Cooper at a car plant (Joe Giddens_PA)

Mini – 98.3%
Lexus – 97.9%
Suzuki – 97.7%
Honda – 96.6%
Toyota – 96.1%
Dacia – 96.0%
Citroen – 94.1%
BMW – 94.0%
Renault – 93.6%
Hyundai – 93.5%

Reacting to the results, Evans added: ‘This year’s winner, Mini, gained excellent scores for all five models we rated, with low fault rates, and very few cars rendered undriveable by these issues.’

Last year’s most unreliable brand was Cupra, with Jeep taking the title in 2022.