What Car? Most – and least – reliable used small cars

Small cars are the most popular choice among UK motorists. There’s plenty of choice in that market, and plenty of used examples around. Small car owners want to try and minimise the risk of unexpected bills just the same as other owners do. In fact, they are more likely to be on a tighter budget, so the cars they choose really do need to be dependable. For that reason it’s important to know which cars have the best – and worst – reputation for reliability when the time comes round to make your next purchase. What Car?’s annual Reliability Survey aims to provide an invaluable insight into which cars might generate big repair bills. It identifies the least and most durable small cars of between 4 and 10 years of age by asking more than 14,200 people about their experience of faults over the last 12 months. Respondents are asked about how long their cars were kept off the road by those faults and how much the repair bill was.

The cars reporting the smallest number of problems and the lowest repair bills got top marks in the survey, while those that hung around in workshops for longer periods and/or accumulated big repair bills got the lowest scores. Within the overall results, separate findings are made by class and age. Here’s What Car?’s overview of the best and worst performers in the ‘up to 3 years old’ city car market.

The Swift was overall the most dependable used small car covered in the latest survey. 11% of cars had problems which were mainly of a minor electrical nature, like faulty tyre pressure sensors. All the cars were still driveable. Three out of four were sorted on the same day, and all the work was done at no cost under warranty.

​Information sourced from: iNews - The Essential Daily Briefing