The most reliable used cars on the market

DEKRA presents a new edition of its report on used cars with the fewest breakdowns. In addition to providing a ranking of the most reliable by category, you can check any used car you are interested in.

The long-awaited DEKRA 2018 Used Car Report has arrived. It is a tool that can be very useful for those looking to buy a used car who want some kind of information about its reliability and possible breakdowns. DEKRA has been collecting and analysing used cars for more than 10 years to prepare this report.

What is DEKRA and how is the used car report prepared?

DEKRA is an organisation with a presence in more than 50 countries, which has three business units, one of them specific to the automotive sector. In this business area, DEKRA provides services such as vehicle inspections, expert assessments, used vehicle management, type approvals and certifications, among many other activities.

What DEKRA does is assess the reliability of used cars by category, taking into account the relevant faults or breakdowns experienced by the vehicles, producing statistics based on mileage. Thus, each category includes four different mileage ranges: from 50,000 to 100,000 km, from 100,000 to 150,000 km, from 150,000 to 200,000 km and, for the first time this year, from 200,000 to 250,000 km. The condition for providing data on a car is that at least 1,000 inspections of that model have been carried out within each mileage range during the period covered by the evaluation.

DEKRA analyses breakdowns or faults that can be considered relevant, not breakdowns that may have been caused by the user. Its main points of analysis are the vehicle’s electrical system, the brakes, the chassis (steering and suspension), the engine and the bodywork.

With all the data analysed, DEKRA obtains the so-called DFI, the English acronym for “DEKRA Fault Index”, in each of the mileage ranges. The DFI is calculated by subtracting the percentage of cars with significant faults or breakdowns from the percentage of vehicles without faults. In this way, the higher the DFI, the more reliable the car can be concluded to be. The model that achieves the best average is the one that prevails in each category.

The most reliable used cars according to DEKRA 2018

To establish the winners of the DEKRA 2018 Used Car Report, the winner in each class is the model that has achieved the best DFI in the 0 to 150,000 km mileage range in each category. And the winning vehicle must have analysed samples in the three ranges up to that total mileage.

The Audi A6 (MY 2011) is the highest-rated car in absolute terms in the DEKRA 2018 used car report

This year, Audi is the absolute winner of the analysis, with victories for the Audi A1, Audi A3, Audi A4, Audi A6 and Audi TT in their respective categories. In addition, the Audi A6 wins – for the third consecutive year already – the “Best of All Classes” award as the highest-rated car in the entire study, with a DFI index of 94.6.

How do you know which used cars are the most reliable?

Beyond establishing a ranking of winners, the DEKRA report is of great help when searching for a used car because it not only provides relevant data on each model in question, with the most frequent breakdowns found. It also analyses each section of the vehicle and establishes an assessment that allows you to quickly see how a car ranks for reliability against its rivals through an arrow code, or by accessing the specific data in each case.

In addition, you can search for a specific model of interest, or even compare different models in the same category across different mileage ranges. The report is available free of charge and can be consulted online in the Dekra used cars 2018 report (in English), and the application available for mobile devices can also be used, free to download here for both iOS and Android.

Other information of interest:

–All the changes that will affect you in the 2018 MOT

–10 tips to avoid nasty surprises when taking your car to the garage