Brits vote BMW 3-Series most reliable
November 13, 2008 by Matt Brogan
BMW’s biggest selling model range, the 3-Series, has been voted the most reliable car in a survey of Britain’s vehicle leasing companies. The poll, which covered the reliability history of nearly 900,000 vehicles in 2008, also revealed that BMW was the most reliable manufacturer overall.
In an historic win over the Japanese car manufacturers who traditionally dominate in reliability surveys, BMW topped the charts in this year’s annual FN50 reliability survey.
The BMW 3-Series was the most rated model for reliability, with the MINI hatch and BMW 1-Series also making the top ten, sitting fifth and seventh most reliable respectively.
Compiled by Fleet News, the survey assessed some 881,000 cars according to the number of breakdowns per 100 of each type of model on each leasing company’s fleet. Points were then awarded according to the number of times that brands or particular models appeared in the tables supplied by the leasing firms and also for the position in which they were placed.
Top Ten (by manufacturer):
- BMW
- Honda
- Toyota
- Ford
- Volkswagen
- Mercedes-Benz
- Audi
- Lexus
- Mazda
- Vauxhaul
Top Ten (by model):
- BMW 3-Series
- Toyota Avensis
- Honda Accord
- Volkswagen Golf
- MINI
- Mercedes-Benz C-Class
- BMW 1-Series
- Honda Civic
- Ford Focus
- Audi A4
Print it: 
Not sure whether to be more surprised that the Japanese are out of 1st position in the manufacturer’s stakes, or that Ford has crept up to 4th! Puts them above Audi, Merc & Lexus, and right at the heels of Toyota!!! Nice work :-)
Oh, and well done, BMW, of course…
a buyer of a ford vehicle will have a different perception of quality as oppose to a Lexus buyer. The lexus owner wil demand zero defects or problems whereas the ford owner will be able to tolerate the problems.
It’s a perception thing.
Icejagans, no it’s not. The survey claims to use real fleet repair data.
Thats right bret,
as opposed to an opinionated phone poll result.
when it is opinionated from a consumers point of view i would have said the holden/ford buyers would be a little pickier.
people who buy a ford or holden over a toyota for example tend to be a little closer to their vehicle and know when somethings not right, or when that little bit of moulding isnt sitting quite right.
i doubt the camry driving grandma or corolla driving 18 yr old female cant pick up on defects like a typical holden/ford driver can.
Is it also judged on how many of each car are sold? The Ford Focus has been the UK’s best selling car for years so there would be more people to call it reliable than there would be Lexus drivers, still, since when was Ford unreliable? Well done BMW!
Time for the TG boys to get these cars and put them through hell and show if the reliability is as the article says.
Alex,
the stats are broken down into “faults” per 100 vehicles
icejagans Says:
November 13th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Thank you for that comment…..
I almost P’d myself :-)
‘points were awarded according to the number of times that a brand or particular model appeared in tables supplied by leasing firms as well as for the position in which they were placed’
Doesn’t this just mean that BMW supply more lease cars to fleet companies that any other manufacturer? Where are the privately owned vehicle stats that might suggest japan are still on top?
Being the skeptic that I am there’s something sided about the stats.
I suggest CA mounts its own little comparison in australia to see if a 3 series even appears on say, orix’s books because after all the 3 series is global car.
The result does ring true however when you consider the number 3 series that likely occupy lease central chelsea or similar.
haha..ford on 4th??
bettter than audi,volkswagen,merc,lexus?
PFFFTFFFFT
Andrew M, my experience has been it doesnt matter what brand of car they buy, a fussy buyer is a fussy buyer! Just because someone is conservative and buys a camry doesnt mean they aren’t equally or more concerned about defects or build quality. It also goes the same at the other end of the spectrum when some buyers will just buy a particular brand because they have always done so. Some people are just Ford people or Holden people or Land Rover or VW or Alfa despite whatever quality is served up.
that is a surprising result!, I think an australian order would be totally diffrent with , subaru, mazda, honda, toyota taking out the top spots,(not neccasserily in that order),
The statistics here are confusing, and don’t really make sense.
eg
Ford is 4th by manufacturer, VW 5th.
Yet the Focus is 9th and the Golf is 4th.
That means every other Ford model would have to be 100% reliable, and every other VW model would have to be 0.01%, to account for that shift in the rankings.
These sort of rankings are always to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Corporate drivers don’t take their work car to a dealer for fixing of a small rattle, but a private Lexus buyer certainly does. Corporate buyers don’t care if their auto seems to shift a bit funny occasionally, but a private buyer sure does.
So a corporate “name vehicle here” will have zero faults on its survey, whereas a private “name vehicle here” will have 2 service calls recorded in its first month of life.
reckless.
what it means is that the manufacturers such as VW must have some pretty unreliable vehicles placed below the focus to drag their score down, and the rest of fords fleet must be placed just out of the top 10
in other words, the rest of fords fleet must be pretty much as good as the focus, where as VW’s Golf must be their best by far, with the rest of their models well off the pace.
also the volume of golfs sold would be less than the focus’s making it easier for VW’s poorer models to drag down the average.
the maths says the results are possible
icejagans,
You’re correct, there is a perception problem, you prove that, as does some others on this post.
That’s strange,Mercedes Benz in the top 10 :)
BMW service is amazing. Even if the car wasnt reliable you have a 3 yr unlimited km warranty and usually and extended warranty from the dealer you bought the car from.
They cover all faults and include free servicing of the car.
So +1 for BMW
How much is a 3 series again??
Relevance escapes some.
Hyundai and Mitsubishi have the longest warranties of them all.
^^^
thats because hyundai and mitsubishi have a point to prove, or at least feel they do
what a load of hogs wash! my mum bought one and she has had nothing but trouble with it. she said she would never buy another! The first thing to go was the tv monitor, than the sunroof, than i wheel bearing at 5000 km, then the passenger side window would not open and close, than the starter motor and this is all before 20,000 km
Andrew M, here is what I said
“That means every other Ford model would have to be 100% reliable, and every other VW model would have to be 0.01%, to account for that shift in the rankings.”
Thanks for echoing it back, but it wasn’t really necessary :)
dont see land rover or jeep in there :)
Reckless,
I know what you said, but it wasnt the same as what i was getting at.
Every other ford would not have to be 100% reliable. The focus as per this list is the most reliable ford, and it is not 100% reliable.
In that case a 100% reliable ford does not exist and hence what you were implying is that the results shown are impossible, they are not.
They are easily achievable
the table shows fords highest volume seller as their most reliable.
for the others (at a guess) they have their highest selling models as their least reliable
it doesnt take much to swing it around really…….
Thanks for not comprehending……..
They are probably comparing British assembled Hondas and Toyotas with German made BMWs.
We all know the Ford Focus, Golf and Astra fall to bits after a few years. They are sell after warranty ends jobs to me.
Wheelnut, of course its a shot at Toyota, everyone knows you just cant help yourself. As for the argument re VWs ranking being lower than Fords despite the Golf ranking higher than Focus, remember its only a ranking, the article doesnt say how much better it is than the Focus, there might be stuff all between cars 4 through 10, and maybe heaps of faults separating other rankings. Just a it could be BMW first by a mile or first by a single defect. Either way BMW has obviously done well.
Irrelevant to Australians really, considering this survey was done in Britain. Survey owners here and then you will have a relevant survey. Aussie conditions, Aussie roads and Aussie buyers
GMAN: ‘what a load of hogs wash!’
I agree with you. I think the 3 series we get here are from South Africa, not Germany (except for some models), so hence, would affect the results. If these were built in South Africa, it would be a different story altogether and a win for Japan.
However, German design is definately really good – with Mazda being the only Japanese car company taking it up to the Germans in this area.
In general, Japanese cars are more reliable and there are many surveys out there to prove it (1 survey doesn’t really amount to anything IMO). Because of this, I ended up getting a Mazda3 rather than a 1 series, A3 or a 307 and Golf which are all really desireable. And after nearly 20,000 km, no troubles at all (so far) and couldn’t be happier.
Will buy Japanese (non whitegood or plain ugly variety) until the Germans have proven reliablity, like the 1980’s, then maybe…..
Jon,
surveys dont prove much whether its in this country or O/S.
survey results are based on opinions which reflect the emotions of the person being surveyed.
even though this survey isnt just your typical phone poll, and even though its formulated with real stats, i still wouldnt adhere to it as if it were the automobile bible.
I agree Andrew but I`d still take more notice of one at least conducted in Australia
SamR, I must be a sucker for punishment. I’ve had two Astras and I’m now into my 33rd month with the Golf. I haven’t kept any of the cars longer than the warranty, but you know well before that expires whether you have a good car or not.
Interesting, wouldn’t the best method be at looking at the total breakdowns per 100 of each brand? Instead of breaking each brand down to different models, then working out the breakdowns per 100 of each model, then ranking the brands based on model performance.
I say this because individual model volumes could distort the results. Also different brands have different numbers of models.
Odd that Lexus scored less than toyota.
Not surprising that BMW tops the list, but I would have thought audi would have been up their as well, with all the good reviews of the new b8 model cars and whatnot.
Not surpised to see Vauxhall in tenth place, Cannot say i’m impressed with the build quality of my Vectra, reliability has been good so far up to 100,000Km and with it now doing 56,000p.a.
Good on you BMW, problem is if they do go wrong they might cost you.
Much better comparo than the useless JD powers surveys which are largely down to what owners think about their cars. Utter crap
Ford is 4th? All English must be gone crazy…
Seeing my last comment is about to be deleted {no idea why} Ill make this statement.
“Another day another award for BMW………take that Japan Poow !!!!!!!!!”
Regarding the South Africa stuff Australia gets the poverty pac 3 series from South Africa, all sixes and M stuff Germany .
K, just look at the Ford range in England compared to the Ford range in Australia. There are many different models available and England does not have the Falcon dragging it down.
I have owned a 2001 330ci and it was very realiable. Also my latest was a 2002 m3 U.S model. A little more reliable but still not by much, expensive to repair. I have put on both cars over 40k miles. My wife has a 95 old Honda accord with 147miles and my father an Acura legend 1992 with 239k miles. All I can say I love BMW and German cars, but in quality Japan is best. No European car would dream of going pas 150k miles with out putting a huge hole in your wallet. lets all face the truth.