Toyota Outbrakes The Competition In UK Brake Failure

Cammy Corrigan
by Cammy Corrigan

We at TTAC pride ourselves as “equal snarkiness journalists”. We don’t care if you’re GM, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Fiat or anyone else. You try to pull the wool over our eyes, we’ll strike back with the truth you’re trying to hide. Likewise, not only are we journalists, we are also humans and as such we have our own brands and marques which we are partial to. Anyone who’s ever read my posts and articles (and not just to comment on my regional grammar and spelling) will know that I like, very much, Toyota and Jaguar cars. But that matters not a jot today. I am a blogger and an impartial one at that, so when I say this next article pains to me write, trust me, it PAINS me!

HonestJohn.co.uk reports that Warranty direct have released the results of their survey of brake failures in an average 12 month period and done over a database of 80,00 policies on cars between three and eight years old. The results are kind of, well, not that surprising. With all the media hoo-ha about Toyota’s quality problems you’d think that Toyota would be somewhere near the top. They’re not. In fact, they’re not even in the top ten (though if Warranty Direct, do an “unintended acceleration” survey, I’d be first in line to read that). Honestjohn.co.uk reports that Toyota came 12th in list of 36 brands. Here are the top five brands with the highest brake failure rate, in reverse order:

5. Mitsubishi: 2.48%. 4. Peugeot: 2.55%. 3. Fiat: 2.74%. 2. Chrysler: 2.78%.

No surprises here. We have the weakest of all Japanese makers, Mitsubishi and Peugeot in 5 and 4, respectively (If they ever do link up, imagine how reliable THOSE cars will be!). Then we have Fiat and Chrysler in 3 and 2, respectively (Those cars makers HAVE linked up, so that should be fun). But in number one position for the highest brake failure rate is:

1. Jaguar: 3.73%.

Pardon me, while I’m sick. Jaguar beat Chrysler by almost 1%. This will be a huge blow for a brand which is trying to shake its old image of Ye Olde Worlde cars with woeful reliability. Another blow to Jaguar, in this survey was the model breakdown (insert your own joke here). Jaguar’s model with the highest brake failure rate was the Jaguar XK8 at 8.38%, a car which was meant to be driven at high speeds and, therefore, should have good braking. Got to love that British sense of humour. Number one position was held by Peugeot’s 407 model. “When it comes to safety-critical car parts, the brakes are top of every motorists list of items that should never fail,” said Warranty Direct’s Duncan McClure Fisher, “Not every brake problem will be a catastrophic failure though – brakes can have issues ranging from calliper malfunction to servo failure. These kinds of issue can be expensive to put right but they don’t always mean you’re going to have an accident.” Maybe Toyota could hire him as a PR speechwriter?

Cammy Corrigan
Cammy Corrigan

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  • Greg Locock Greg Locock on Feb 22, 2010

    Typical brake faults include squeals, roughness, and so on and so forth. Do you really think that 1 in 30 cars has brake FAILURE? Until that data is properly stratified I don't think you can really call it failure.

  • Tricky Dicky Tricky Dicky on Feb 24, 2010

    Sorry to be all kind of factual about this Cammy, but the only problem Toyota have in relation to brakes coming from this current bout of anguish in the media, is with the Prius. You perfectly highlight the problem they've got - someone raises a question about quality and a brand, and immediately everyone thinks it universally applies to every aspect of what the company is doing/ has done in the past. There's no reason to imagine that Toyota would be high up that list. As it is, the brakes on the Auris were shockers and i'm guessing that most of the warranty issues would relate to that one model. As for the Prius, it's not even like the brakes have failed. They just work differently under some obscure circumstances than what the customers expected. But there's no suggestion that they don't stop the car exactly as they were designed to do. Of course, if they weren't so awful at explaining themselves, then people wouldn't have all the fear and anguish about this. All the Prius recall will do is change the software to recalibrate how the brakes work. It won't improve the stopping performance one little bit - just change the feel on the brake pedal. As for Jag being #1, that's just terrible. I so hope Tata turn them round and make a credible alternative to the German premium cars. But they've got toget rid of those nasty, Chinese-OEM looking grilles (IMO).

  • THX1136 Always liked the Mustang though I've never owned one. I remember my 13 yo self grabbing some Ford literature that Oct which included the brochure for the Mustang. Using my youthful imagination I traced the 'centerfold' photo of the car AND extending the roof line back to turn it into a small wagon version. At the time I thought it would be a cool variant to offer. What was I thinking?!
  • GregLocock That's a bodge, not a solution. Your diff now has bits of broken off metal floating around in it.
  • The Oracle Well, we’re 3-4 years in with the Telluride and right around the time the long term durability issues start to really take hold. This is sad.
  • CoastieLenn No idea why, but nothing about a 4Runner excites me post-2004. To me, they're peak "try-hard", even above the Wrangler and Gladiator.
  • AZFelix A well earned anniversary.Can they also attend to the Mach-E?
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