One of the UK’s most influential consumer group reports has identified the car brands which are deemed most unreliable by car owners, with some surprise names at the top of the list.
Which? have gathered the opinions of 47,000 driver from across the country to find out the most common gripes and complaints about their cars, and amazingly some of the industry’s most luxurious brands don’t fare too well.
Perhaps expectations are higher when you are paying a premium price for motor, but the fact that Land Rover and Tesla are perched at the very top of the Which? report tells us that the owners are very particular.
For cars aged 0-3 years and 3-8 years Land Rover does worst of all, with a one star out of five for dependability. Tesla coming up close behind, with ‘lengthy garage stays’ cited in the report. However, electric car technology may account for some of the issues with Tesla’s as there aren’t too many traditional garages which can easily fix an EV.
“Motorists might assume that paying a premium for a luxury car like a Tesla would improve their chances of avoiding reliability issues and repeated trips to the garage.
“But our research found that Tesla owners had experienced some of the highest fault rates and lengthiest average garage stays in their first three years - making it one of the least reliable brands out of the 35 included in our survey.”
Strangely, Tesla’s Model 3 won the accolade for most reliable executive car and most reliable electric car in a similar reliability poll publish by What Car? earlier this month. And Land Rover too have hit back at the reliability of the report itself.
Speaking to the Daily Mail a spokesman said: “Land Rover takes product quality seriously, listening to customers and continuously striving to improve. To this end, Land Rover is introducing software over the air to its new products allowing remote updates without the need to visit a retailer.
“PIVI, Land Rover's all new infotainment architecture also improves the customer experience which has been recently introduced on our latest products. Furthermore, Land Rover has also offered Apple Car Play and Android Auto free of charge to all customers with compatible infotainment systems.
“Having analysed Which?'s research, Land Rover understands that a sample size of 0.12 per cent of customers owning a Range Rover Velar and 0.22 per cent of owners of a Range Rover Sport have been surveyed. We don't believe this is representative of the vast majority of satisfied customers.
“If any customer would like to talk to our customer services team, they can call: 0370-500-0500.”