German-made cars are not as reliable as many believe, according to new research. Warranty Direct has studied its claims data to compile a list of the manufacturers with the most reliable engines - and Audi, BMW and Volkswagen all finished in the bottom 10 out of a total 36 makers.

In fact, the only firm whose cars had a worse engine failure rate than Audi was MG Rover. MINI wasn’t much better, finishing third from bottom, while its parent company BMW came seventh from bottom. And, despite its reputation for rock-solid reliability, Volkswagen came ninth from bottom.

Honda scooped the gold medal – the study found that just one in every 344 Honda engines failed, compared to one in every 27 Audi engines. Despite its recent recall woes, Toyota came second and Mercedes managed to outperform its fellow German brands with a respectable third-place finish.

Duncan McClure, Warranty Direct Managing Director, said that engine failures are the worst for motorists as they’re the repairs that can lead to the highest costs because of the parts and hours of labour required to fix them: “The nuber of failures may be low compared to areas such as axle and suspension damage but engine repairs almost always result in costs reaching the thousands for motorists who aren’t covered by a warranty.”

An engine failure on a Range Rover Vogue recently led to Warranty Direct’s highest ever claim of £13,000.

Top 10 manufacturers

Manufacturer Failure rate (%) Failure rate (1 in x) 1 Honda 0.29% 1 in 344 2 Toyota 0.58% 1 in 171 3 Mercedes 0.84% 1 in 119 4 Volvo 0.90% 1 in 111 5 Jaguar 0.98% 1 in 103

Bottom 10 manufacturers

Manufacturer Failure rate (%) Failure rate (1 in x) 1 MG Rover 7.88% 1 in 13 2 Audi 3.71% 1 in 27 3 MINI 2.51% 1 in 40 4 Saab 2.49% 1 in 40 5 Vauxhall 2.46% 1 in 41

What’s your view? Do you think German manufacturers still deserve their reputation for building the most reliable cars?

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