TÜV Sud is an organization specializing in the certification, inspection and testing of vehicles. The first inspection must be carried out 4 years after the vehicle registration date, while subsequent inspections are required every 2 years. Using the data collected during the inspections, the organization prepares an annual report which ranks the most and least reliable cars, as well as highlighting the most common defects found in several dozen car models. The full report is available from TÜV Sud service centres, however excerpts have been published on the body’s website.
Further in-depth analysis on the most reliable and most troubled cars has been provided by the latest research by JD Power Vehicle Dependability. The most significant result is the overall improvement in the quality of the vehicles evaluated after 3 years of use, which, although increasing, highlights the need for automotive manufacturers to further advance the reliability of digital technology features. Let’s see in this article:
Looking for cars with more defects The importance of car maintenance
Looking for the cars with the most defects
Among the cars subjected to inspection within the first 3 years, Dacia Duster it ranks last, with a defect rate of 11.1% out of 100 specimens checked. Dacia Lodgy follows with a rate of 10.9%, while Fiat Punto it ranks third with 10.5%.
Moving on to the next review, Volkswagen Sharan is the model with the highest number of defective models, with 20.3% out of 100. Next, we find Volkswagen Passat CC with 19.8% e Dacia Logan with 19.2%. The Logan also occupies last place in the rankings after the third inspection, with 30.9% defective cars out of 100, and in fourth place with 34.4%. In the ranking after the fifth inspection, Logan takes second place with 36.2% of defective vehicles out of 100.
Turning to most common defects found during overhauls, after the premiere, the main problems were found in the front headlights: 1.6% of vehicles had opacity, while 1.3% had problems adjusting the height of the light beam. These defects recurred even after the second MOT, but with a higher frequency: the opacity of the headlights was found in 2.7% of the vehicles, while 1.8% had other problems.
After the fourth inspection, 5.5% of the vehicles presented headlight opacity problems, while 5.3% experienced backlighting issues. After the fifth revision, the rear lighting becomes the most common problem, found in 7.9% of vehicles out of 100, while 7.1% experienced dull headlights.
For its part, JD Power Vehicle Dependability found a high level of owner dissatisfaction, with a PP100 index of 49.9, almost double the problems found in the next category, bodywork. Speech recognition systems were the main culprits for complaints, followed by Apple CarPlay e Android Auto, which have shown inadequate functioning. The study highlighted a large number of problems encountered in advanced driver assistance technologies.
The importance of car maintenance
From these results it is clear that the majority of new cars do not show significant defects in the first years of use. The situation gets progressively worse over time. For example, for Renault Kangoowhich turns out to be the worst model after the fifth revision, defects were found in 37.5 specimens out of 100 tested.
This type of analysis is not only influenced by the intrinsic quality of the car, which tends to be increasingly reliable on average, but also by regular maintenance. Those who carry out the maintenance more frequently run less risk of incurring more or less serious defects.
Out of a total of 8.75 million cars inspected, 70% passed the inspection without presenting any defects. 19.9% had medium defects, up from 21.5% in the previous report, while 9.6% of cars had minor defects and 0.4% had dangerous defects, according to technicians of TÜV Sud.
Regarding cars subjected to the first inspection, Mercedes GLC obtained the fewest defects: only 1.7% of the cars inspected had problems. In second place, with an average of 2.2%, are found Mercedes B-Class, Opel Insignia and Porsche 911followed by another Mercedes, the SLC, which has 2.4 defective cars out of 100. We note a triumph of German car manufacturers, with 8 cars positioned among the top 10 positions.