Which car breaks easily?

When we buy a car, one of the worrisome points is what sort of services are included in their warranty. When we buy a brand new car in Japan, they usually come with two different manufacturer warranties at the manufacturer’s dealer’s: 1) General Services: 3 years after the first registration (or under 60,000km) and 2) Special Services: 5 years after the first registration (or under 100,000km).

General Services apply to almost everything including electrical components for free repair. Special Services are only for the engine, transmission and other major components and of course the repair is free. Imported cars such as Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi usually covers everything within 3 years of the first registration (no millage restriction).

Like this, when you buy a new car, you get all the protections so you can relax but there is no set guarantee for second-hand cars. Normally, if you buy them from a dealer, they provide their own services under their own policy which set the time and mileage as they choose. So, as you can guess, the limitations of warranty vary depending on the dealer. On a 5 year old car or a car with the mileage more that 100,000km, there will not be any warranty from the manufacturers, nothing will be covered for repairs and of course there is more chance of having something go wrong than brand new cars. I personally think that each manufacturer should report their failure rates for the cars past their warranty time but apart from when they do a recall, I have never seen such information. Each manufacturer makes great effort in design and production so that their cars will not have a break down within the warranted time (5 years after the first registration or under 100,000km) but after that, their ways of thinking are different between them.

This is more obvious when you compare the policies between Japanese cars and imported ones. For Japanese cars, compared to imported ones, as you know, it is not so likely to have a breakdown or a problem which requires a repair even if you have it for a long time. Even if your car needs a parts change or repair, it is carefully designed so that you can change parts easily. For example, to change the battery, it is well placed so that you can take an old one out easily but in some imported cars, you require a special tool and need to remove the bits and pieces around it before you take the battery out. Some imported cars have really complicated layouts. Also, for a simple parts change, where if it is a Japanese car you only need to replace a rubber part, for some imported ones they require a whole shaft assembly change where the rubber part is attached. Sometimes for a similar repair, the cost can be 10 times more than fixing a Japanese car.

However, even Japanese cars, well-known for their hardiness, are only machines. They do break. So which models break more easily? Makers never publicly report this (or they might just not have the data) but the other day I asked the insurance company we always use. Here you go. Insurance company disclose these data as much as possible to car dealers to draw our attention and reduce customers claiming insurance.

(Failure rate ranking)
1) Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear (PD6W, PD8W, etc)
2) Mitsubishi Chariot Grandis (N94W)
3) Mitsubishi Lancer (CE9A, CP9A, etc)
4) Nissan Largo (W30, NW30)
5) Nissan Skyline (R33 series, R34 series)
6) Nissan Primera (P11 series, P12 series)
7) Subaru Legacy (BH5, BE5)
8) Nissan Gloria (Y33 series, Y34 series)
9) Toyota Harrier (SUX series, MCU series)
10) Mazda MPV (LW3W, LW5W)

Some cars listed here include the ones which had problems as a car going on the road, sport cars which went through too many conversions and not in the original states at all, and of course the drivers’ bad driving habits also play a part, so please do not judge the cars on this list as bad: but if you are buying a car now, please check this list to choose the best one for you.


★ Japanese used car stock : http://jpctrade.com/stock/index.html
★ JPCTRADE Home page : http://jpctrade.com/
★ JPCTRADE Blog : http://jpctrade.blogspot.com/

(Editor)
JPC TRADE CO.,LTD.
3B YS-Building, 1-2-2 Botan, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Japan Used Motor Vehicle Exporters Association (JUMVEA)
TEL : +81-3-5245-7731
FAX : +81-3-3643-4955