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How reliable are modern cars?

4K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Longmoor 
#1 ·
Picked up my new Ateca on Friday, booked in for service for Wednesday. I'm so excited, virtual dashboard went black. Dealer saying must be replaced. Makes me think how reliable are cars these days...
 
#2 ·
It feels like car manufacturers are now finishing off their testing of new kit on the vehicle being driven by the new owner whereas in the past it would have been done thoroughly in the lab. It is sort of a win win for them. They get the cars and kit out quicker and provided they deal with any issue promptly, customer will be happy with how 'Seat/VW/Ford' dealt with the issue.
All just supposition of course
 
#3 ·
New cars are far more reliable than old ones!

I remember the '70's with regular failure of steering joints, shock absorbers, wheel bearings, exhausts and CV joints, water ingress, fading paint, corrosion and seized brakes.

Electrical issues however, were usually confined to Alternator and Starter motors, but engines/gearboxes would often fail within 70,000 miles.

Modern cars common issues are mainly electrical or emissions related and hence impossible to fix outside a workshop or main dealer.

Also, a modern car, even a French one might travel over 150,000 miles before being towards the end of it's life, an older one might be all but knackered at 80,000, and at 100,000 considered for a telegram from the Queen!

Just think, you can buy a cheap little hatchback and enjoy low cost motoring for 100,000 miles, with a bit of resale in excess of £1000. How bad!?
 
#4 ·
I might be just lucky, or probably it's my driving habits, or the fact that I preferred simpler manual cars with bulletproof boring engines like 1.6 BSE, but I found SEATs to be extremely reliable.
I've been driving SEATs for the last 20 years - Ibiza, then Leon and Ateca.
The list of failures is short: a broken clutch cable, a broken driver's door lock that refused to read the remote key, one thermostat and one boot strut. That's all, and nothing major for 20 years. Not bad, methinks.
All failures happened to cars older than 7 years. The costliest was lock replacement, smth like £300.
My Ateca is still 2 y.o. not a glitch so far. I am going to drive it for at least 5 years more, it's my first turbo charged one, let's see if it's as reliable as the old ones.
 
#5 ·
I have owned four Seats now and have found them all really good cars, with hardly an issue.

The remark about manufacturers allowing customers to do the testing for them brought back memories. British manufacturers were totally guilty of that years ago. My first foreign car was a Golf. Once I had driven it for a few months, with no faults, I realised that all my earlier British built cars were unreliable in the extreme.
 
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