Ranking of failure rates of used, 10-year-old cars

High prices of new cars make a large part of Polish drivers decide to buy a second-hand vehicle. Assuming that we find an honest seller and do not buy a 10-year-old vehicle, which supposedly "an elderly man drove only to church" and which may turn out to be a purchase failure and a financial well without bottom, we still have to consider the higher failure rate of used vehicles, in comparison to new ones.

Despite this, even among ten-year-olds with a fair mileage on the meter, we can find interesting offers of cars at reasonable prices, whose solid factory workmanship gives good predictions for a useful life worthy of the price paid for them. Before deciding to buy, it is worth looking at the rankings drawn up on the basis of the collected vehicle failure tests.

Ranking of failure rates of 10-year cars according to TÜV

One of the most reliable ranking sources is TÜV - the German security monitoring agency. The first TÜV was founded by German engineers during the industrial revolution of the 19th century, and the decisive factor for the organisation was the explosion of the Munich steam boiler in 1865. Since 1951 in Germany, TÜVs have been responsible, among other things, for periodic vehicle inspections.

TÜV 10-year vehicle breakdown list 2017

It is worth mentioning that the report from 2017 concerns vehicles tested at the turn of 2015-2016, i.e. vehicles that left the production line in 2005-2006, and their overall average mileage is 115,000 kilometres driven. The list refers to vehicle failures that could endanger the safety of other road users or the passengers of the vehicle itself.

Winners of the failure-free ranking with a very good grade

For another year in a row, the crown of the least troublesome vehicle is retained by the Porsche 911 models, achieving 10.4% of serious defects with an average mileage of 78,000 km. The second place is taken by Toyota Corolla Verso, a compact minivan. Vehicles of this type drove about 130,000 km on average in the period of 10 years, and defects disqualifying the positive result of the inspection occurred in 16% of copies. The third place in the group of those judged to be very good was taken by the car Mercedes SLK. Serious defects were recorded in 17.4% of vehicles with an average mileage of 93,000 km.

Leaders of the ranking with a good grade

The group of vehicles rated in the ranking of failure-free ten-year-olds with a good grade starts from the nineteenth place. Honda Civic ranks here with 123,000 km and 23% failure rate. Honda Civic from 2005 is the eighth generation vehicle of this model. One of the biggest weaknesses of this version is the fast-wearing service brakes. The handbrake also collects low marks, sometimes acting only on one of the wheels. The twentieth place is occupied by Volkswagen New Beetle, the successor of the legendary "Garbus", which was not admitted to traffic in 23.2% of cases with a distance of 104,000 km.

10-year-old cars evaluated sufficiently

36th place in the ranking is held by Opel Meriva. In these small minivans, with a distance of 103,000 km, 27.1% of serious damage occurred. Behind him is the 37th place for the Volvo V70. This large functional combo car, with a large mileage of 197,000 km, reached the same rate as Meriva's 27.1% major failure rate.

The lowest rated cars in the TÜV ranking in 2018

At the very end of the group of 10 year old cars that received an unsatisfactory grade, was KIA Sorento, which reached an infamous level of 38.4% with 151,000 km, followed by Mercedes ML with 164,000 km of mileage and 42% failure rate.