How reliable is a new Renault (or Dacia), Fiat or even Citroen?
How reliable is a new Renault (or Dacia), Fiat or even Citroen?
Ok, not going to be many problems in first year or two, but I typically like to keep my cars for most of their life cycle, I feel I get most value for my investment that way. I know eight years ago (when I bought my last car) I was told stay away, as once a few years old all the electrical gremilins come out to play. I'm not brand loyal, in fact the more options I have the more likely I am to get a deal that suits me. But I do like trouble free motoring and currently drive a 2007 Toyota Avensis and it has never put a foot wrong.
Should I stick to the old reliables (i.e. Mazda, Toyota etc.) or are the new generation of Renault, Citroen and even Fix It Again Tony (Fiat) likely to be properly reliable over seven or more years? Also contemplating Kia (seven-year warranty sounds good to me).
Thanks for your time.
John Walsh (Waterford)Feb 2015 Filed under: choosing new car
Expert answer
Hi John,
OK, there's good news and bad news here. The good news is that the four marques of which you've spoken have all really lifted their quality and reliability games. Renault especially has come on a long way since the dark, unreliable days of the early 2000s. While electrical gremlins are pretty much guaranteed further down the line, that's something you could equally say of any Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Audi.
Dacia tend also to make very reliable cars, in no small part because they're so simple and lacking in the sort of high-end electronics that festoon other models. The brand regularly features very high up in the European JD Power customer satisfaction rankings.
Fiat tends to do less well in those rankings, but much of that is down to a dealer network that's still trying to get its head around modern customer service requirements. The fact is that Fiats these days are no more or less well made or reliable than any other brand (mostly - more on that in a tic). Certainly, we know of many Fiat customers who've had trouble-free motoring for many, many years.
Citroen too has really lifted its game and the latest generations, such as the C4 Picasso and C4 Cactus are really well put together. Long term reliability is still an unknown of course for these new models, but in general, longevity seems to be on the up.
However, just as these Franco-Italian brands have improved, so too have the Japanese and Koreans. There is still a distinct gap in overall solidity between the Japanese brands (Honda especially) and everyone else. It's still the case that if you want genuinely trouble-free motoring, the Japanese are still kings, with the Koreans and Skoda hot on their heels.
That said, I reckon if you bought any Fiat, looked after it properly and made sure it was fully serviced to schedule, you wouldn't have any major problems.
Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Adviser@neilmbriscoe