Older used cars rated for reliability

How dependable are cars as they get older? Here’s what the owners of cars between six and 15 years of age have told us

Buying a new car is usually a reasonably safe prospect; if anything goes wrong, the chances are the cost of getting it xed will be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Step outside of the new car market, though, and the risks are higher. The majority of warranties last for only three years, and most owners stop paying out for franchised dealer servicing once cars are four or ve years old. So, if you don’t choose carefully, you could buy a car that hasn’t been well maintained and might suffer a costly fault.

However, you can signi cantly reduce the chances of buying a money-pit used car by choosing a reliable make and model.the best older cars suffer almost no faults at all, even when they’re up to 15 years old, and in some cases issues are resolved for free, even though the cars are out of warranty. In contrast, faults occur in more than half of the least dependable models, with many repair bills exceeding £1500, according to the annual What Car? Reliability Survey. On an older car, those costs could even exceed the car’s value.

Our survey covers the ownership experiences of 18,119 motorists over a 12-month period, spanning 31 makes and 218 models. Here, we’re focusing on cars aged six to 15 years old. Many are the type of car you might be thinking of buying as a second family car or a rst car for a new driver, so their dependability is a prime concern.

We asked car owners to tell us what went wrong with their car, grouping the faults into 14 different areas: air conditioning, battery, bodywork, brakes, engine, engine electrics, exhaust, fuel system, gearbox, interior trim, non-engine electrics, sat-nav, steering and suspension. To come up with our unique reliability ratings, which are expressed as a percentage, the two main areas we looked at were how long each faulty car took to be xed and how much owners had to pay out for repair bills.