Renault Tops Reliability Survey…In A Weird Way

Once a new car has reached 3 years of age in the UK, it has to undergo a yearly test to make sure the key components of a car are working, and that the car is safe. It’s called an MOT. This is not the drive-it-down-to-your-friendly-gas-station-and-get-a-sticker routine. It’s pretty rigorous. It is anticipated with apprehension. Anyway, the MOT is reaching its 50th birthday after the test became mandatory in 1960. So to celebrate the MOT’s 50th anniversary, Nationwide Autocentres, a garage group that performs many MOT’s around the UK, conducted a survey (how about taking the MOT out and drinking lager until your head spins? THAT’S a good way of celebrating your birthday!). The survey consisted of the top 10 best selling cars in the UK. Then they looked at their failure rates after 3 years (some people have far too much time on their hands). Shall we have a look at the results (via the Daily Mail)? Firstly, here are the contenders:

Ford Mondeo, Ford Ka, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Renault Megane, Vauxhall Corsa, VW Golf, Renault Clio and the BMW 3-series.

All of these cars were surveyed at their first MOT (i.e. three year old). What the surveys doesn’t take into account is how hard they’ve been driven (that pretty much equals out) and it doesen’t say what exactly has failed (it’s not a loose knob of the radio that fails the MOT, it’s usually something expensive …. T’s PASS or FAIL.)

So, who “won” this survey of the highest rate of failure at their first MOT? I’ll give you a clue. Nissan didn’t bring reliability to their alliance.

That’s right; the Renault Megane tops the charts with a whopping 25 percent failure rate at their first MOT. But before you start with the “French reliability” jokes, have a look at who came second. It’s GM with the Vauxhall Corsa with a 20 percent failure rate at their first MOT (one in 5 have to go back to the shop for some pricey repairs). When the cars hit 5 years, positions 1 and 2 get reversed, with the Corsa having a 39 percent failure rate and the Megane having a 35 percent failure rate (the French get better with age.) Position 3 is owned by the Ford Ka, but the failure rate has a sharp drop to 15 percent. The full table is shown below for your perusal. When a friend of mine read this article, he decided to email copy of this survey to Renault for the attention of Odile Desforges who is the executive vice president of Engineering and Quality. If he gets a reply I’ll let you know…