German automobile club published a rating of the most reliable and unreliable cars

Anna Tkach

AutoPortal editorial team

1,980 views 2 min read

Every year, the German automobile club ADAC publishes a list of the most reliable and unreliable cars. Of course, 2021 was no exception. And, it must be said, the results of the European colleagues' research were not without shattering stereotypes – cars from French or Italian manufacturers showed excellent results!

The basis of the ADAC analysis is accident reports that occurred on German roads over the past year. In total, it included 3.38 million breakdown reports received from German car owners. It is important to note here that we are talking about malfunctions that occurred directly on the road – ADAC specialists take calls and go to help drivers.

So, the auto club studied the records in detail and compiled a rating of the most durable and most unreliable cars. Only models no older than 10 years and with a production run of at least 10 thousand units were taken into account. After that, the cars were divided into five classes.

The most reliable and unreliable cars according to ADAC

Segment A - the most reliable:

Toyota Aygo

Segment A - the most unreliable:

Smart forfour

Smart fortwo

Segment B - the most reliable:

Audi A1

Citroen C3

Fiat Punto

Honda Jazz

Mazda CX-3

Mini

Mitsubishi Space Star

Peugeot 2008

Renault Captur

Skoda Fabia

Segment B - the most unreliable:

Opel Meriva

Hyundai i20

Segment C - the most reliable:

Audi A3

Audi Q3

BMW 1-Series

BMW 2-Series

Hyundai Tucson

Mazda CX-5

Mercedes A-Class

Mercedes CLA

Mercedes GLA

Mitsubishi ASX

Seat Leon

Skoda Rapid

Volkswagen Beetle

Segment C - the most unreliable:

Kia Ceed

Kia Sportage

Nissan Qashqai

Opel Astra

Renault Kangoo

Renault Scenic

Segment D - the most reliable:

Audi A4

Audi A5

Audi Q5

BMW 3-Series

BMW 4-Series

BMW X3

Mercedes C-Class

Mercedes GLC

Mercedes GLK

Volvo XC60

Segment D - the most unreliable:

Ford S-Max

Opel Insignia

SEAT Alhambra

Volkswagen Sharan

Segment E - the most reliable:

Audi A6

BMW 5-Series

Segment E - the most unreliable:

Mercedes E-Class

Which cars surprised in the ADAC 2021 report?

Of course, in some respects the ADAC report is not surprising. Example? So, in most classes, leading positions were taken by German and Japanese cars, which was quite expected. But how do you like the position of the French Citroen C3? Second place (right after Audi A1) in the segment of small city cars – not bad, right? And here is another example – right after the Citroen, in third place, is a car designed in Italy – Fiat Punto. Peugeot and Renault Captur also received good ratings. On the other hand, there were unexpected failures: in particular, Kia Sportage and even representatives of VAG – Seat Alhambra and Volkswagen Sharan – performed poorly.