TUV Releases 2011 Used Car Reliability Report

The German Technical Inspection Association (TUV), together with the German car magazine Auto Bild, have released the result of the 2011 used car reliability report. The study is based on 7,253,709 general vehicle inspections performed by TUV’s independent engineers, covering all the stong and the weak points of a large number of vehicles.

We’ll start with the cars that would make excellent second-hand purchases, a category dominated by Toyota and Porsche. The German carmaker managed to win five age categories.

One of its champions is the 911 (we are talking about the 996 generation, which was produced between 1997 and 2005), which managed to claim the top position in the following age clases: 6-7 years, 8-9 years and 10-11 years. The current incarnation of the Boxster (987), which has been around since 2004 shares the number one position of the 4 to 5 years of age with the Toyota Corolla Verso.

We’ll move on to the Japanese automotive producer now. The second generation of the Prius, which was produced between 2004 and 2009 manage to become the first hybrid vehicle included on the list of winners of the TUV report. The company’s Auris, RAV4, as well as the aforementioned Corolla Verso are other Toyota models that managed to secure a top ten place in the 2 to 3 years of age category.

At the other end of the reliability scale we find the Kia Carniaval, which went down to the last place, just like it did last year. The flaws registered by the car include faulty brakes with corroded pipelines, oil loss and rusty exhast. The same can be said about the Ford Ka (1996-2008), with the vehicle performing extremely bad especially in the 10 to 11 years of age category.

The study’s overall conclusion was a negative one, as the rate of cars with serios problems has increased from last year (19.5 in comparison with 17.6). However, this is also due to the fact that the TUV stations have made more complex checks.