Check out the reliability factor

HOW do you double the value of a Skoda? Fill up the petrol tank.

The Czech car brand used to be the butt of jokes, which were later turned into a marketing campaign to highlight the brand’s progress after being taken over by VW.

The laugh is on the other sides of rivals’ faces now. Skoda scores highly in a recent reliability report by Carbuyer.co.uk, where it commanded two of the coveted top 10 places.

There is no reliability study specific to the Irish market but we buy much the same cars as in the UK.

All respondents in the Carbuyer’s report were owners of cars between three and six years old. In some ways the top ten are not surprising. Toyota and Lexus account for five places. Honda and Mercedes also feature. The surprise is Jaguar, whose reliability is improving, although other surveys may disagree.

However, also up is the cost of repairs as more hi-tech features are added to cars that are more costly to replace or repair. This makes slightly older cars less likely to cost you a packet if some gizmo breaks down.

You can also check your car’s reliability on Reliabilityindex.com, which has a slightly different picture to Carbuyer, with premium brands such as Lexus not in the final mix. This begs the question: how reliable are reliability surveys? There are so many types of car and study that they do come up with different results, but all are useful indicators. Some, like Reliability index focus on the most commonly bought cars, which can be more helpful than those including high-end brands that ought to give you reliability for the ridiculous money they cost.

The study uses data from claims on 50,000 warranty policies and shows Japanese and Korean cars dominating the family car table, with Mercedes taking up one place. Vauxhall and Citroen make the top 10 and Ford gets a couple of mentions for the Ka and Focus.