As if you still needed a reason to buy one!
Well this is going to be good news for all of you out there in company car land that are trying to persuade their bosses to let them have a BMW.
We all know that in many cases, people drive the badge rather than the car and if that wasn’t true, why then did Skoda’s fantastic “Superb” not sell in bucket loads? As we deal with drivers of company cars every day here at BVL, we see it time and time again, where a driver will choose a low poverty specification car with a posh brand name, rather than a have a fully loaded high spec car from a volume manufacturer and you have to be honest, that doesn’t make much sense.
So you guys that yearn for Bavaria’s best are going to have your hand somewhat strengthened by the news that the FN50 report carried out for Fleet News Magazine has revealed that the BMW 3 Series is the most reliable company car in the UK.
The results come from a survey of the 50 biggest contract hire companies, who between them run over 1.5 million vehicles, which makes this the largest reliability survey in the UK and to add the cherry on the cake, its all put together by Fleet News which is the most respected fleet publication in the country. So this is a fairly credible piece of research.
The survey is based on real experience of operating cars and vans, and not on a personal opinion or some kind of interpretation of a pole and as such, its pretty accurate and reflects the real world as far as these cars are concerned, so if it says it’s the most reliable car or van, well chances are it probably is.
Not only does the survey look at cars and vans, it looks at the people that make them as well and in this case, Honda were found to be the most reliable car manufacturer and that’s going to help Honda sell even more cars into the fleet market as companies know that not only does the car maker produce the cars, but goes on to support them long after they have been sold.
Picking up second place in the car survey behind the BMW 3 Series is the Honda Accord and that’s a well deserved result for this classy car that is overlooked just too often. Germany return to the survey with a 3rd place for the Audi A4, whilst the highest placed British built car, the Nissan Qashqai sits in fourth and that’s a tribute to all the guys and gal’s in Sunderland that produce this superb value multi-function vehicle.
Fifth is another BMW, this time the “1 Series” whilst Fords Fiesta takes sixth. Seventh and it’s another big German brand, this time Mercedes with their C-Class. Eighth is another British built car with a Japanese badge and that the Burnaston built Toyota Avensis and that’s followed up in ninth by guess what, another British built car with a Japanese badge, the Swindon built Honda civic.
Picking up the rear in tenth place is the German VW Golf and it rounds off a “Top Ten” that pretty much consists of German or Japanese cars and maybe this just perpetuates the myth about cars from both of these countries, but its comforting to know that 3 of the 4 Japanese cars are built in Britain, so they kind of count as British don’t they?
As for the car makers themselves, in the category called “Most Reliable Car Manufacturer”, Honda claimed first position, Volkswagen took second and BMW grabbed third.
Moving on to vans well it’s a double for “Our Henry” as Ford Motor Companies Southampton built Transit was voted as most reliable van and Ford themselves took the honors as the most reliable commercial vehicle manufacturer, beating the Mercedes Sprinter into second spot and sandwiching the Merc between itself and the Transit Connect, which took a worthy third place. Citroen pick up 4th & 5th with the Berlingo and the Relay whilst Vauxhalls Combo sits at 6th, Nissans superb Navara Pick-Up truck gets a justified 7th place and rounding off the Top Ten is Vauxhalls Vivaro and guess what, two more Germans in the rear guard as the VW Caddy takes 9th and the VW Transporter 10th.
It’s no surprise to find Transit taking top spot and so probably not a surprise the Ford should win the “Most Reliable Commercial Vehicle Manufacturer” award, whilst Volkswagen grabs 2nd place and Mercedes Benz takes 3rd. Nissan takes the win as “The UK’s Most Reliable Pick-Up Truck” and it’s the only pick-up that makes it into the commercial vehicle top ten.
FN50 Survey most reliable cars
1 BMW 3 Series
2 Honda Accord
3 Audi A4
4 Nissan Qashqai
5 BMW 1 Series
6 Ford Fiesta
7 Mercedes Benz C-Class
8 Toyota Avensis
9 Honda Civic
10 Volkswagen Golf
FN50 Survey most reliable car manufacturers
1 Honda
2 Volkswagen
3 BMW
FN50 Survey most reliable commercial vehicles
1 Ford Transit
2 Mercedes Benz Sprinter
3 Ford Transit Connect
4 Citroen Berlingo
5 Citroen Relay
6 Vauxhall Combo
7 Nissan Navara
8 Vauxhall Vivaro
9 Volkswagen Caddy
10 Volkswagen Transporter
FN50 Survey most reliable commercial vehicle manufacturers
1 Ford
2 Volkswagen
3 Mercedes Benz
