In defence of French cars!

S

setanta1

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I noticed that the conventional wisdom (ignoring the origins of that phrase) on this site is that French cars are unreliable. My experience is otherwise, but the experience of one motorist does not constitute evidence - so I went looking for some.
Whatcar publishes a reliability index that gives a score to various car makes. The Reliability index takes into account all factors of a repair, the cost of the parts and the frequency of failures - The Average of all cars is 112 which means that if the figure for the car you are looking at has a higher than average index (118) it indicates that that car is less reliable than the average, if however there is a lower than average index (60) the reliability is better.

SUZUKI 33.52
HONDA 34
MAZDA 37.51
SKODA 49.98
TOYOTA 65.22
HYUNDAI 65.34
NISSAN 67.04
CITROEN 67.23
FORD 70.55
KIA 72.27
MINI 72.88
PEUGEOT 74.51
LEXUS 77.56
VAUXHALL 80.45
VOLKSWAGEN 81.74
BMW 86.1
MCC 88.3
DAEWOO 91.59
MITSUBISHI 92.87
SEAT 94.76
SUBARU 97.67
ROVER 97.79
FIAT 101.83
VOLVO 108.52
RENAULT 112.83
MERCEDES 116.27
MG 120.08
SAAB 124.33
AUDI 135.5
JAGUAR 137.16
CHRYSLER 152.19
ALFA ROMEO 155.59
LANDROVER 211.71
JEEP 224.6
PORSCHE 240.01​


So, Citroen and Peugeot seem well up there and Renault, the least reliable French marque, is still average for the group as a whole.
(Sorry for the appearance of this post - I am operating the limit of my IT skills!)
 
Any chance of deleting the thread - it hurts my sensibilities!

Toyota, Skoda and Honda are well up there so that's me happy.
 
Just an observation but aren`t Skoda, VW and Seat for example, basically the same cars with different badges? If so why are they so far apart in this survey?
 
Sorry, Suzuki top of the list ??? Ahem, based on the Swift I take it as they sell very few other cars (unless bikes are included?).

In response to iggy, true the engines/chassis'/srivetrains are common to all 3 but the locations of the assembly plants are not....so it's the build quality that's probably the defining factor here.

However, JD Power is probably a more reliable and accepted survey, coming, as it does, from the owners.


Here's the results from the 2008 survey....
7588125111.jpg

75881243591.jpg
 
iggy said:
... aren`t Skoda, VW and Seat for example, basically the same cars with different badges? ...
Click to expand...
+ Audi, although they hate to admit it!
Pique318 said:
... In response to iggy, true the engines/chassis'/srivetrains are common to all 3 but the locations of the assembly plants are not....so it's the build quality that's probably the defining factor here...
Click to expand...
Partially true Pique318, for example. the new Skoda Superb is a new Skoda-developed "platform" not a re-engineered Passat and the next generation Audi A8 will likely be a re-engineered Superb.

Its a pity they killed off the Seats in the BTCC and WTCC, rumour had it they were spoiling VW and Audi's more sporty, up-market image, but now they have a problem with the Fabia's recent performances in the Trophee Andross, the Monte Carlo Rally and last week-end's Galway International.
 
There are all sorts of surveys around OP.

The one I see referred to most often is [broken link removed]

...where French cars most certainly do not fare well.

In fact the survey you posted is the only one I've ever seen where French marques are rated anything more than generally 'poor' for reliability.
 
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