The doom and gloom surrounding Jaguar and Land Rover continues with the news that the brands have come second and third from bottom in a survey of vehicle reliability and cost of repair.

Only off-road specialist Jeep recorded worse results in the study of 30,000 vehicles from twenty-seven leading manufacturers.

Far Eastern brands remains number one for reliability, with eight of the top ten manufacturers analysed by independent automotive warranty firm, Warranty Direct, from either Japan or Korea.

Warranty Direct’s annual Reliability Index which looks at 30,000 vehicles from twenty-seven manufacturers, combines the number of faults a car suffers alongside the actual cost of repairing them.

With an average of 46,500 miles, the majority of the vehicles under the spotlight were entering into the fourth and fifth years of ownership. The average repair bill stood at £321.82 – a fall of 10% over the last twelve months.

Mazda retained the top spot, a position it has held for four consecutive years, with Honda and Hyundai leapfrogging Ford to second and third places, respectively. At number five, Spain’s rising star, Seat makes its maiden appearance in the Warranty Direct Reliability Index as the highest placed European manufacturer.

In comparison to Jaguar, rival executive car maker, BMW climbed nine places compared to its 2003 standing to number seven, despite recording labour rates of £100 plus per hour to carry out remedial work. Mercedes fell marginally to twelfth with Audi in twenty-first place after Warranty Direct were paying up to £147 per hour for labour.

Alongside BMW, only four other manufacturers improved their positions in the 2004 Reliability Index – Honda and Rover rose 1 place each with German giants VW and Korea’s Hyundai, both up 3.

Renault was the worst performing volume carmaker at number nineteen with a below average £287 cost of repair, but a frequency of failure of over 38%.

Subaru and Mitsubishi’s excellent reliability records are only tarnished by the sky-high costs of repair when things do eventually go wrong.

"A car suffering a breakdown is just half the problem for the owner. To get it back on the road, they have to fund the cost of the repair. Motorists invariably fail to consider the two together," explains Duncan McClure Fisher, of Warranty Direct.

"The Far East is still home to the most reliable and cost effective, manufacturers in the World. Encouragingly, despite the lowly positions of Land Rover and Jaguar, British workers are well represented in the top ten with Honda, Toyota and Peugeot all building models at plants over here."

Position Make Reliability index Average cost of repair Position in 2003
1 Mazda 51.09 £244.41 1
2 Honda 65.63 £263.17 3
3 Hyundai 69.52 £315.78 6
4 Ford 69.69 £207.58 2
5 Seat 71.21 £328.32 New
6 Toyota 84.24 £430.58 4
7 BMW 84.61 £244.72 16
8 Peugeot 85.10 £246.39 7
9 Daewoo 86.14 £295.37 New
10 Volkswagen 86.26 £265.22 13
11 Vauxhall 87.04 £241.20 5
12 Mercedes 88.19 £350.76 11
13 Fiat 89.79 £269.71 9
14 Volvo 90.96 £283.83 10
15 Nissan 92.88 £363.31 8
16 Rover 94.76 £273.05 17
17 Citroen 97.37 £229.51 12
18 Mitsubishi 109.32 £510.36 14
19 Renault 115.60 £286.97 15
20 MG 116.52 £327.56 New
21 Audi 130.70 £322.05 18
22 Saab 134.46 £314.95 19
23 Alfa Romeo 155.25 £392.88 20
24 Land Rover 174.05 £367.03 21
25 Subaru 193.62 £993.58 22
26 Jaguar 206.56 £483.26 New
27 Jeep 241.09 £509.31 23

Frequency of failure

Position Manufacturer Number of failures per 100 policies
1 Mazda 17.88
2 Toyota 18.62
3 Honda 19.41
4 Subaru 19.82
5 Mitsubishi 20.04
6 Hyundai 22.35
7 Seat 22.69
8 Nissan 23.44
9 Mercedes 24.30
10 Daewoo 29.46
11 Volvo 31.09
12 Volkswagen 31.90
13 Ford 32.16
14 Peugeot 33.00
15 BMW 33.16
16 Fiat 34.31
17 Rover 34.73
18 Vauxhall 35.34
19 MG 36.25
20 Renault 38.20
21 Alfa Romeo 39.55
22 Citroen 39.59
23 Audi 39.76
24 Jaguar 42.16
25 Saab 42.87
26 Jeep 43.75
27 Land Rover 46.23