Warrantywise reveals UK’s 'most unreliable' used cars

Warrantywise has revealed the least reliable used car makes and models in the UK in its annual reliability index.

The last-generation Land Rover Range Rover was named as the most unreliable used car, according to the polling of more than 131,000 extended car warranties.

Land Rovers, BMWs, and Porsches take up seven out of 10 of the least reliable models.

The data only includes cars that are less than 10 years old, outside of the manufacturer’s warranty, and discounts models with less than 100 plans, to ensure a fair sample size.

Scoring as the most unreliable, according to the reliability index, the Land Rover Range Rover rated lowest due to the frequency and cost of repairs.

With the highest repair costs being £23,890, and the frequency of repairs impacting the general reliability, the marque’s previous generation Range Rover obtained an overall score of 20.2/100.

Though the average repair cost (cost recorded in 2021*) for the model is £1,607 – an amount that is actually quite low compared to many of the other bottom 10 models.

Land Rover takes up two of the bottom three positions, with its previous generation Range Rover, and the Range Rover Sport coming in at first and third least reliable, respectively.

Making up the rest of the bottom 10 in terms of reliability are the BMW M5, which came 10th, the Mazda CX-5 in ninth, the Bentley Continental GT came eighth, the Audi Q7 seventh, the Porsche Cayenne sixth, the BMW X6 fifth, the Porsche Panamera fourth, and the BMW M3 came second.

Lawrence Whittaker, CEO of Warrantywise said: “The reliability index is extremely revealing of how luxury cars, which may seem like they would be reliable because of the costly price tags, aren’t always so.

“The opinion that they should be very reliable, for the price that customers pay for them, is quite a popular one, and this evaluation of our data is helpful for us to guide customers the right way when wanting to make a large purchase on a luxury car, like a Porsche.”

Top 10 least reliable models

* Average repair costs collated over a period between 2021 and 2022. Since the sample was selected, Warrantywise has seen a significant rise in the price of labour and parts, which will impact future repair costs.