Japanese used car

Japanese manufacturers have ted a poll of the Top 100 most reliable used cars over the past decade.

The list, compiled by independent mechanical breakdown insurer, Warranty Direct, found that every car in the Top 10, and 16 out of the Top 20, were Japanese s. The Honda Accord was at number one, with Honda also taking the 6th place with the the Civic and 8th with the CR-V.

Perhaps the most surprising rankings are the Toyota Corolla at number 91 (Toyota has four s in the top 20) and the Mazda MX-6 at 97 (the MX-5 is third, with two other Mazda s in the top 20).

Models were ranked according to the frequency of failure and based on a database of over 55,000 vehicles. Last year, over 7.5m Britons spent £25bn buying a used car - nearly seven times the number of people who bought a new car privately.

The highest placed non-Japanese was the British built Jaguar X-Type in 13th; however, the S-Type appears near the bottom of the list, at 98.

The German automotive industry first appear at number 25 with the Mercedes-Benz SLK: the S-Class fares less well, at number 90. The list is propped up by the Porsche Boxster at 100.

Volvo’s S/V40 was the highest placed Swedish manufacturer in 15th. Ford, the nation’s most popular manufacturer, delivers its best-ranked , the Ka, in 22nd. The Citroen Xsara was the best-placed French at number 26.

The full Top 100 Most Reliable Cars Of The past 10 years can be viewed by visiting www.reliabilityindex.co.uk, but the top 10 s are:

1 Honda Accord
2 Subaru Forester
3 Mazda MX-5
4 Mitsubishi Carisma
5 Toyota Yaris
6 Honda Civic
7 Nissan Almera
8 Honda CR-V
9 Toyota RAV4
10 Nissan Micra