Europe / March 18, 2013

A recent study by the automotive trade journal Automotive executed for guarantee insurer Autotrust shows that in 2012 3.7 percent of all young Audi's engine failure was detected. The German* brand has the dubious honor of the rankings to conduct least reliable engines. At the bottom of that list - which in this case is the best place - Honda state that a loss ratio of only 0.29 percent scored. The Japanese and Koreans scored fine European brands let it fail in this area, as shown in the following lists.

The figures are derived from data from Autotrust of approximately 20,000 cars from an average of five years and an average annual 30,000 km's. The lower limit for the investigation to be doing was 50 cars. Subaru is exactly this number, at Mercedes, data from 1,100 cars included.

There, the study does not distinguish between models but in the case of the Audi Q7 is a remarkably bad turn, 10 percent of the cars had to deal with engine problems, reports Autotrust. It is according to the insurer not only the TSIs of the Volkswagen Group, but also the larger diesels. The Volkswagen brand ended with a loss ratio of 1.91 percent also just outside the Top 10 least reliable engine builders.

The Top 10 Autotrust of most reliable engine builders (with behind the failure rate) is as follows:

1. honda 0.29

2. Toyota 0.58

3. hyundai 0.70

4. Mercedes 0.84

5. Volvo 0.90

6. lexus 0.99

7. Kia 1.08

8. subaru 1.10

9. Fiat 1.17

10. Ford 1.25



The top 10 least reliable engine builders:

1. Audi 3.71

2. alpha 3.26

3. Mini 2.51

4. Saab 2.49

5. Opel 2.46

6. Porsche 2.29

7. Peugeot 2.26

8. BMW 2.20

9. seat 2.15

10. Renault 2.13

'Audi-motoren minst betrouwbaar, Honda meest' | Autonieuws - AutoWeek.nl

 

Where's Mazda in this?

Hyundai/Kia has made a giant leap upwards in terms of drivetrain reliability. Too bad the same can't be said for other components.

 

No mazda? At least were not in the top 10 least reliable engine builders...

 

i believe it, my brother and my dad have had a few Audi's, and they all carry a spare set of coils in the glovebox so they don't have to get towed home AGAIN.

 

My last Audi had all kinds of weird issues all the time. That's why my wife finally got angry and traded it for a CR-V. Random things would fail and I would get stuck waiting for some obscure part for a week just to fix it myself.

 

Porsche in the 10 worst list? I thought they were known for their reliability?

 

hahaha yeah, right, porsche VW audi, is all volks Audi Group. surprising that the VW brand got a lower out of audi and porsche. they're mostly the same parts, or at least all made in the same way by the same people, there are exceptions with the more high-end porsches.

 

Google "Porsche IMS bearing failure."

 

SHANGHAI
--Volkswagen AG will recall 384,181 vehicles sold in China due to gearbox problems, according to China's quality-control agency, following a critical television report that illustrates the power of state-run media over foreign brands.
Volkswagen's local joint ventures beginning on April 2 will recall cars made or imported between December 2008 and March 2013, according to a General Administration of Quality Supervision statement posted on its website. The affected cars include imported and locally manufactured models, such as the Golf Variant, Cross Gold, Audi A3, Bora, Sagitar, Magotan, Touran, Octavia and Passat.
The company and its joint ventures "will replace the existing gearboxes with improved ones and upgrade the controlling software to the latest version for Volkswagen car owners to eliminate safety concerns. All such services are free," the statement said.
The approx. damage for Volkswagen is over $ 600.000.000,-
Gearbox Problem Prompts Volkswagen to Recall 384,181 Vehicles Sold in China - WSJ.com

VAG is finally forced to action by the Chinese gouvernement, which is a good case since these problems are also widely spread in Europe.
In none of the European countries action is ever initiated by the government since we do not have these specific automotive consumer protecting laws as in the USA and China.
In general VAG-customers are left alone in Europe by the VAG group and their dealers with their problems .

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

 

Interesting indeed! Glad mazda is not in the 10 least reliable engine builders

 

just because people think something is true, doesn't mean it actually is.

 

What's known on the street is a tricky thing. A friend of mine used to work for Audi customer service. She said the most complaints came from A4 owners. They would take every bit of credit offered to buy the car, then had no money left over for repairs. While A8s are by no means reliable, a $10k repair was no more painful that a butt pimple to their typical owner and complaints were rare.

Same thing, smaller scale, with MINI owners: POS car, but not very expensive relative to the income of their typical owners, hence little whining.

Even smaller scale here, the wave of kids maxing out their credit to buy a 2004, 100k mile RX-8, then not having any money left to buy plugs or gas.

 

^ so very true, but let me add one thing I think is true - never own any German car out of warranty. They may design fantastic cars in many respects, but somehow the idea of reliable design (or reasonably priced) hasn't caught on.

 

interesting idea. my dad had a 03ish A6, and he sold it because the automatic passenger door lock stopped working. small thing right? its a $1300 fix, as there is some $1300 module that fails.

he replaced it with a 2007 A6, and @20k the CEL came on, and there was a reflash, the light came on again, and this time they pulled the engine apart to clean it, as it plugs with carbon. since it was under warranty, it was free, although there is no fix, and there is no warranty extension so when it needs it again @40k its out of pocket. so that got sold too.

with the A4 crowd, my brother bought his new and was stuck on the side of the road with dead coils, at least once, while it was under warranty. so basically it broke before he was even supposed to maintain it. although i think he still owes money on it, so that part is right

 

I'm curious about the coil issue... I had coil issues on my S4, and obviously they needed to be replaced, but the engine would still run. Was the engine actually unable to run in his case?

I did not like the ignition configuration on my S4. 2 ignition control modules ($100 each), 6 coils ($30 each) and 6 plugs (depends on plug choice). The ICMs were prone to failures and the coils linked to that ICM would often need to be replaced. Even if you buy everything used it's a couple hundred dollars. It was one of the things on my list to replace (with a simpler system) before I had to sell it. I still loved that car, for some stupid reason.

 

That's because the RX-8 has been discontinued!

 

So true...lol

 

every german car had those coils and every single one went bad and/or was recalled.

the regular A4's only have 4 coils, so i think when they die you loose 2 cylinders? i'm not really sure about that, i do know that my brother lost a coil on the freeway, and it dropped his top speed to like 18mph...