Why are British cars generally not known for their reliability?

13 comments

1. I had a Mercedes that was in the garage at the very least once a month and I’m not even playing that up to sound worse either

   Now we have a Volvo and a Mini as the nip around town car and so far touch wood, no problems.. The mini is powered by a German unit though so..

2. Mini, jaguar and land rover and no longer British.

   Mini is German and owned by BMW, and IIRC jaguar and land rover are owned by an Indian company

3. People aren’t buying the cars for anything other than prestige. Jaguar and Range Rover along with Audis, BMWs and Mercedes are the cars that are suppose to make other people envious of you.

   Lexus doesn’t fit that bill.

4. Mini is also owned by BMW

5. I have deep affection for British manufacturing but Leyland and other manufacturers in the day just didn’t pay enough attention to quality control…like…” it’s a bit shit…we know…but it will do..” kind of attitude.

   The Japanese seem to have quality control and discipline hardwired into their DNA as a nation.

   I grew up with old Toyotas, Isuzu and little Datsuns and they were bloody bullet proof vs their British counterparts.

   I own a Lexus too, bought new last year.

6. Mini are owned by BMW firstly, ie German.

   Secondly this is a US study so why we would we care, there are only a handful of US cars, other than Fords, on British roads. And some major brands are missing ie basically all French cars, Fiat, Skoda?

   So this doesn’t really relate to us or the cars we own.

7. Insider for the Indian owned British company.

   In my experience, lines of communication between production and design are far too long, but the biggest issues, by far, are engineering and costs. In short, the cars are over engineered, and then put together with the cheapest possible components.

8. I was born and bred in Coventry, I know people who work at JLR. I went to school with some of them. I own a Toyota, despite being able to afford a Range Rover. That should tell you something.

9. JLR are incapable of building a car to Toyota/Lexus standards.
   They build really fancy, great cars but skimp on the quality of components and cost cut.
   They look great but are built like shit but they carry on because their customers don’t care.

   If you look what they’re driving anywhere that is actually remote/inhospitable it’s all Toyota Hiluxes and Landcruisers, Nissan Patrols etc.Not as fancy but they do the job.Becauseif you actually need to rely on your vehicle getting you somewhere a modern Land Rover isn’t up to the job.

10. I think this study needs to be done in Europe. It includes a whole range of cars generally not available in the UK market, and a load of extremely popular car brands (Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall/Opel, Skoda, etc).

11. In the 90s Rover formed a partnership with Honda and started using Honda engines in some of their cars. The Rover 216 GTI was one of the best British cars ever made (mostly because it was just a Honda Civic).

    With regard to current JLR products, they build cars to last the duration of a 3-4 year lease. After that they don’t give a fuck what happens to them, they would rather people just take another lease on another new car.

12. I only see two British manufacturers on that graph, and they’re both the same company.

    Mini are German.

13. Stop saying “they’re not British”. They are designed and built in the UK, so the OP’s point still stands. The nationality of the owner is not that important.