According to the findings of the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, 83% of cars aged up to five years old were fixed for free, either under their new car warranty or as a goodwill gesture by the car maker.
However, that leaves an unfortunate 17% who had to cover the costs themselves. While most of those car owners only had to find up to £500 to get their cars repaired, 2% had to pay more than £1500 for each fault.
The most common issues across all cars aged up to five years old were electrical glitches with the infotainment and sat-nav systems, but owners also told us their cars had suffered problems with the bodywork, engine, exhaust and fuel systems and the gearbox/clutch.
Although 34% of faulty cars could still be driven and were fixed in a day or less, 28% of driveable cars took more than a week to repair, and 10% were undriveable and took more than a week to fix.
1: BMW 3 Series diesel (2019-present). Average repair cost £421
Diesel versions of the current BMW 3 Series are far more prone to faults and costly to repair than petrol models. Almost a third (30%) of the diesel models reported on had a problem, compared with 11% of petrol cars. Worse news for diesel owners is that 56% of their cars’ faults cost more than £1500 to put right, and that meant the owners in our survey paid out an average of £421 in repair bills. Owners of petrol-powered 3 Series cars are a more contented bunch because all their cars were fixed for free.
2: Audi A1 (2018-present). Average repair cost £218
The Audi A1 is the most expensive small hatchback when it comes to repairing faults. Although Audi covered the cost of 50% of issues, 17% of owners were left with bills ranging from £310 to £500, and 33% had to pay more than £1500 to get their cars fixed. In contrast, Ford paid for all repairs on the recently discontinued Fiesta. Audi A1 owners told us 25% of their cars had gone wrong in the previous 12 months, and that half of faulty cars were out of action for more than a week.
3: Audi A3 (2013-2020). Average repair cost £100
There’s a stark contrast between 2013-2020 Audi A3 repair bills: 89% of cars were fixed for free, but all the rest set their owners back more than £1500 in costs. The current A3 is proving less costly to own, with 96% of bills covered by Audi and none of the remaining bills topping £300. According to our data, 275 of previous generation A3s went wrong, and 40% of them were in the workshop for more than a week.
4: Kia EV6 (2021-present). Average repair cost £94
