In Germany its taken from the ADAC every car they visit for a breakdown is logged put into a computer program and once a year it spews out facts as to what is the most reliable car.As just about everybody in Germany is in the ADAC its normally a pretty fair assessment.
Probably about as fair as you can get. In a similar vein I was in a mate's 1.8 Nissan Primera when it gave up the ghost on the A1. He phoned his insurer's breakdown service and a tow truck duly turned up. The bloke looked at it, said "probably crank sensor, nothing I can do here" and towed it in. When at their garage it turned out they were going to have to take us and the car back:
"Can't you fix it?"
"No. We have no parts for these. In fact we don't even have manuals for these cars, they never break down."
Me: Indicates car and raises eyebrow.
"Look. We handle this stretch of the A1 for most insurers' cover, Green Flag, Europ Assistance and we also cover for the AA and RAC. RAC are worst, they only call us when they've run out of ways to fob off the customer, so their people are always furious when we arrive. We've been doing this for over a decade and this is the second Nissan we have ever been called to, the other one was a Micra which the lady had filled with diesel."
"If modern cars are so reliable, what keeps you in business?"
"Ooooh, anything French. Or Italian....."
After that we discussed marques and relaibility at length. His experiences reflected popular opinion. Japanese cars most reliable, then German stuff, then the GMs, Rovers and Fords forming the mid-table mediocrity, then the Italian makes and the French stuff bringing up the rear. This was before Korean cars became common (Daewoo were new at the time) and prior to Renault infecting Nissan with their gremlins.
Oh BTW. He was right, it was the crank sensor and my mate got the recall two weeks later......
|
