Whats most reliable car??

lakes1985

have a peugeout 407 diesel and its the most unreliable car iv ever had, theres always something goin wrong with it! anyway im gonna sell it and am looking at a few cars and was just wondering what peoples opinions were on the most reliable car and relatively cheap to run. I was looking at volkswagon passat,bmw 320,audi a4 or a6,skoda superb,mazda 6,toyota avensis or rav 4!is diesel the best to go with or petrol or does it matter? I wont be doing alot of driving long distances just mostly around my town. basically i want a car that wont give me any trouble and if it does i want it to not break the bank to fix it! Iv about 3500 to spend! any help would be greatly appreciated! cheers

MugMugs

90s Micra. won't get more bulletproof

blue movie

toyota corrolla. Currently Driving a mazda 3 and not a bother with it

dar83

One you won't drive. Ever. :P

joolsveer

Toyota claim to be the best built cars in the world.
http://www.toyota.ie/about/best-built-cars/

dr ro

Diesel vw passat.

-gilly-09-

Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed! 01 preferably.;)

Absurdum

a horse and a few bales of hay, hey

mondeo

Theres nothing more reliable then your own two legs. They rarely breakdown

MugMugs

Passat reliable? Eh? No they're not.

Big Nasty

-gilly-09- wrote: »

Alfa Romeo 147 Selespeed! 01 preferably.;)

I like Alfa's but LOL in fairness!

'Reliable' in this country means will go forever with practically no maintenance. A late 90's or early 00's Toyota is probably your best bet OP.

EDIT: I possibly missed sarcasm in your post gilly, at least I hope I did.

EDIT 2: If you're only doing short hops stick with petrol.

166man

Coming from an Alfa fan that 147 with that gearbox are awful!

Go for something Petrol, Japanese. Best in the business for reliability at your budget. Something like an Avensis 1.6 petrol should do the trick. Stay away from a Passat diesel though, not worth the risk at the money to say a couple of quid at the pumps.

dgt

I used to have a miserable 1992 Seat Ibiza. I did my best to kill the retched yoke but alas it refused to die (no coolant, foot to the floor etc etc etc). And yet it still started every time on the button.

I hate reliability :mad:

mayoman ngalway

would a honda accord be classed as a reliable car?
am looking into to getting a 08/09 next year,,,,fingers crossed:D

currently drive a 2001 is200, had very little go wrong in six years of owning it.

MugMugs

dgt wrote: »

I used to have a miserable 1992 Seat Ibiza. I did my best to kill the retched yoke but alas it refused to die (no coolant, foot to the floor etc etc etc). And yet it still started every time on the button.

I hate reliability :mad:

For a motor renound for head gasket failure, you did well

shawnee

Yeah , most of the Hondas are good partiularily the older ones. Hard to beat a corolla and almera pre 00 ,bulletproof !

theoneeyedman

MugMugs wrote: »

90s Micra. won't get more bulletproof

Agreed .....had a 93 jap import and couldn't kill it. Old model 98 to 03 avensis great yoke too and not hard ran tbh

Leonard Hofstadter

shawnee wrote: »

Hard to beat a corolla and almera pre 00 ,bulletproof !

The prefacelift version of the 98-02 Corolla is one of the most reliable cars ever made without a shadow of a doubt, those 4E-FE engines were slow but they just kept going and going and going, the post facelift 4ZZ-FE VVTi on the other hand was a bit of a disaster with the burning oil and the soft gearboxes! The radios in the post facelifts were renowned for failing completely at random too!

If anyone is ever buying a 98-02 shape Corolla, buy the pre-facelift (bug eyed) model!

The only other car I can think of where the post facelift is substantially worse than the pre-facelift was the Merc W124 E-class, the post facelift were built where Merc decided to abandon the 'built to last irrespective of cost' approach that they always did before that. That said, the post-facelift W124 was still a triumph of reliability and high build quality compared to the W210, probably the worst E-class ever made, they all rusted so badly, though the W211 runs it close with all the electrical problems it develops:(!

lakes1985

lakes1985 wrote: »

............ I wont be doing alot of driving long distances just mostly around my town. basically i want a car that wont give me any trouble and if it does i want it to not break the bank to fix it! Iv about 3500 to spend! any help would be greatly appreciated! cheers

If you want to spend your entire budget a 1.8 petrol Mazda 6 would suit. If you want to spend less than a petrol Accord, you'd get a lovely well specced early 00s model for lots less than €3500.

Bearcat

I'm drivin the m-in laws Honda jazz as a stop gap.....takes dogs abuse, amazing load space, cheap t ax and a gutsy 1.4 and miserable on fuel as in good.

Fishtits

I think reliability needs to be defined in the context of this thread.

Does the OP mean the car that will go furthest with nil maintenance?

Or the car that will provide trouble free service with full approved maintenance?

If the former it will probably a Jap.

If the latter it seems to be down to luck and quality of service.

Some cars will break your heart regardless of how you service them - a certain French marque springs to mind...

And what is reliability? starts in the morning? goes duff on the road? warning lamps flashing? makes funny noises?

How do you define reliability?

working fool

yup 90,s mirca ,,ugly as hell but hard to kill ..
possably the very first fwd starlets where bulletproof too 1985 ish

Row

lakes1985 wrote: »

have a peugeout 407 diesel and its the most unreliable car iv ever had, theres always something goin wrong with it!

What problems have you had with your 407..?

Tbh every make and model have there own problems...I have a 04 407 and a 96 406 myself and the 407 is'nt as reliable as my auld 406..:)

Saying that most of the modern cars today are'nt as reliable as the older makes/models of the 90's..:rolleyes:
Most modern Diesels have.....
1)Dual mass flywheels that can fail around 100k mls.
2)Diesel particle (particulate) filters that may need replacment around 100k mls
3)electric egr valves that can't be bypassed without bringing on and eml.
(except for engine ecu remap)
4)abs sensors..turbo control sensors..turbo pressure sensors..mass airflow sensors..crank/cam sensors...dpf diff sensors..dpf upstream/downstream temp sensors..common rail high pressure sensors..etc..etc that can fail at some stage.

Now that most of the modern cars are gone to start/stop there is futher chance of problems in the future...:eek:

E.g.
Was talking to an Opel/Vauxhall tec a few months ago who was after sitting a training course and he informed me that Opel/Vauxhall have introduced pressure sensors builtin to there glow plugs on the 1.7 td that optimises the combustion process within there diesel engines at the correct time.....These glow plugs sell for around £200 a pop...:eek:

The mad thing is nearly all of the above improvements changes in modern diesels are related to lowering emissions....As i have said before these maybe reducing a hole in the ozone layer but there putting a hell of a hole in our pockets...:mad:

Sorry OP i got sidetracked.....Happy shopping.

passatman86

never owned one but i heard carina's are a good workhorse

working fool

passatman86 wrote: »

never owned one but i heard carina's are a good workhorse

ohh yeah the 1987 to 1991 version was one of best made .

bazz26

working fool wrote: »

ohh yeah the 1987 to 1991 version was one of best made .

And still a few about.

Back to the OP's question. A particular make of car with a reputation for being the most reliable can be a disaster if it hasn't been maintained properly or has been abused. So with any second hand car you need to judge each one their own merrits and present condition.

unkel

joolsveer wrote: »

Toyota claim to be the best built cars in the world.
http://www.toyota.ie/about/best-built-cars/

LOL they were very reliable in the 90s (when cars didn't have any electronics to go wrong), but not so much now, compared to other cars. Most people in Ireland still believe though just like my 7 year old still believes in Santa

Leonard Hofstadter

unkel wrote: »

LOL they were very reliable in the 90s (when cars didn't have any electronics to go wrong), but not so much now, compared to other cars. Most people in Ireland still believe though just like my 7 year old still believes in Santa

Very hard to change a stereotype, no matter how far removed from the truth it may be, just look at the reputation VW still has, and they haven't made a reliable car in nearly 20 years now...

In fairness Jap cars from the 90s were near on indestructible, modern Toyotas are nothing special for reliability, as we know but of course most people still (stupidly) think that nothing beats a Toyota for reliability.

Rich11

Old renaults





















VW, Ford, Merc, BMW, Opel...... anything german.... or japanese

lakes1985

got the particle filter done in car,changed air coolant fan i think its called,had to put in new rear shocks,just got 2 wheels replaced that fan belt is on and now catalic converter is giving trouble!the car has been nothing but a nightmare!

captainspeed

captainspeed wrote: »

............ modern Toyotas are nothing special for reliability, as we know but of course most people still (stupidly) think that nothing beats a Toyota for reliability.

Except their diesels presumably? :P
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75932251

Row

lakes1985 wrote: »

got the particle filter done in car,changed air coolant fan i think its called,had to put in new rear shocks,just got 2 wheels replaced that fan belt is on and now catalic converter is giving trouble!the car has been nothing but a nightmare!

Peugeot change diesel particle filters default around 100k mls...the cooling fans can fail...these are variable speed units so they are expensive.

Rear shocks don't normally fail on the 407's..

Crankshaft pulleys can fail around 100k mls..the tend to clatter under acceleration.
Did you replace the dual mass flywheel yet..?

Solnskaya

I run a 90's Almera as a "here's a free, fully fuelled/taxed/insured car lads, drive the sh1te out of it at my expense why don't ye" car for workers to go from work to home/hotel etc. It never goes wrong. Ever. Nobody cares for it, nobody is responsible for it, nobody minds it. And "nobody" is very happy that it runs and runs without a single issue regardless. It clocks up at least 700 km a week, every week btw. Good car.

alias no.9

lakes1985 wrote: »

particle filter
catalic converter

Do you do a lot of short journeys where the engine doesn't get up to operating temperature for very long?