KIA AND VOLVO ARE UK’S MOST DEPENDABLE BRANDS

Kia and Volvo have been named as the UK’S most dependable car brands in the latest JD Power Dependability survey.

The two brands topped the table with Skoda, Suzuki and Hyundai rounding out the top five most reliable brands.

Volvo was the only premium manufacturer to make it into the top ten, with rival saudi and BMW propping up the bottom of the table.

The depend ability study questionedmore than 12,000 owners of new vehicles registered from February 2014 to April 2016.

It assessed cars for problems across eight categories: vehicle exterior; driving experience; features/controls/displays; audio/communication/ entertainment/navigation; seats; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; vehicle interior; and engine and transmission. overall depend ability was determined by the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100), with a lower score reflecting higher quality.

With an industry average of 131 PP100, Kia and Volvo were well ahead of the game on 83 PP100 each. Audi’s 187 PP100 and bmw’ s198pp 100 saw them fall below mainstream brands such as Dacia, Citroen and Fiat.

Volvo, Peugeot, Jaguar, Vauxhall and Skoda also took honours in the segment-specific studies. The Peugeot 108 was rated best city car; the Skoda Fabia best small car; the V40 best compact; Jaguar XF best luxury and Vauxhall’s Meriva and Insignia were best small MPV and mid-sized car respectively.

The study found that the most problems fell into the exterior category, with 20.6 issues for every 100 vehicles. The advancement of technology has also brought problems for owners of new cars with infotainment connectivity and voice command problems among the six most common problems.

It also found dissatisfaction with fuel economy, despite half of owners saying the claimed economy was their major reason for choosing a particular model.