Mysteries of modern motor cars
In my opinion there are two strange observations about modern motor cars. Firstly, the more expensive the car, the less reliable. Secondly, a modern car is more expensive in real terms than one built 100 years ago.
For me, the most important thing about a car is reliability. But in the newspaper motoring supplements, there is much comment about each car’s power, speed, styling, design of seats, sound of exhaust and proliferation of gimmicks – and nothing about its reliability.
The website www.reliabilityindex.com gives the reliability of every modern car sold in Britain, based on (i) how likely the car is to break down, and (ii) the cost of the repair. It multiplies the two figures; the lower the result, the more reliable the car.
The most reliable cars are mainly small, cheap Japanese cars, with the Toyota IQ and the Mitsubishi Lancer now the most reliable available.
The most unreliable cars are the most expensive ones, including Porsche, Bentley, Maserati, BMW M5 and Land Rover.
The most reliable SUV is the Suzuki Jimny. It is also the cheapest.
The Model-T Ford, built from 1908 to 1928, was in real terms (inflation adjusted) cheaper than a modern car. It was also more reliable in that you could always fix it if something went wrong.
Modern cars are usually impossible to fix. If I had to drive from Cape Town to Cairo, I would without doubt choose a 1917 Model-T Ford over a 2017 Range Rover, because I know I could always fix the Ford but never the Range Rover.
Why is this so? Metals, casting, machining and engineering processes have vastly improved over the last 100 years, making all other manufactured goods much cheaper and more reliable. Why are cars more expensive and more unreliable?
The answer is that cars have become more and more complicated, bristling with electronics that almost nobody understands, and more and more laden with a mass of gimmicks that are often totally unnecessary.
Some are “nice to have”, such as power steering and air conditioning; some are quite gratuitous, such as electric seat adjustment, central locking and a thousand sound options. Personally I don’t want any of them.