High rankings for German cars baffle motoring writer

German used cars Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have come up trumps in a survey of owners that has astonished one motoring expert.

The prestige cars were the top-ranked used cars in an Automobile Association survey of owners' satisfaction with their vehicles.

Japanese makes Honda, Toyota, Subaru and Mazda were ranked best in the new cars category.

The survey, by market research company JD Power New Zealand, canvassed about 14,000 AA members, of whom 2665 owned new cars and 12,173 owned used cars.

It weighed up happiness with the quality and reliability of the cars, their visual appeal and comfort, and service and ownership costs, such as service costs, fuel and insurance.

But The Dog & Lemon Guide editor Clive Matthew-Wilson was surprised the German makes had topped the used car tables and astonished that Audi was top-ranked for reliability and quality by owners.

The high satisfaction was probably simply from "the feeling of driving a prestige motor car and little to do with reliability".

"There is not a reliability survey on the planet that has placed anything from Europe within the top 10 places of reliability. I am deeply concerned people may buy what are essentially upmarket lemons as a result of this survey, which places far too much emphasis on stuff that doesn't affect the average driver, and not enough on the stuff that does affect the average driver."

He was less surprised at the results for new cars, in which Subaru was ranked most reliable, just beating Honda. Honda was also given best marks for the costs of running and repairs, and for looks and comfort.

The survey reported used Audis and BMWs also had lower rates of mechanical problems than other makes - an average of 26 and 36 problems respectively for every 100 vehicles. The highest problem rate was in Volkswagens, with 45 problems in 100.

Mr Matthew-Nelson said the high rankings of the Japanese makes was in line with other international surveys in which European cars rated low - but warned that for some makes the happiness was short-term.

"There is a reason the Asian countries are taking over and it is simply that they make better cars. Honda and Subaru are the best engineered vehicles on the planet but they have a limited life and once it's up, they're a nightmare. So the situation would change if you looked at those same makes that were 10 years old. You'd find Toyota and Mazda were top of the list."

Ford and Holden were ranked lowest in reliability and quality and Subaru was lowest for running costs.

For the used car rankings, Toyota, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were also considered reliable after Audi. Peugeot and Ford were at the bottom.

Audi and Mercedes-Benz predictably were top of the board for visual appeal and comfort, and Suzuki and Daihatsu were at the bottom.

Daihatsu and Suzuki cars were considered most economical to run and service, with Subaru, Mercedes and Audi the bottom three.

An American survey of consumers by car information site Edmunds.com of "most wanted vehicle" under NZ$40,000, came out this week with similar results - the Honda Accord narrowly pipped the Toyota Camry.