TÜV report: Mercedes, Porsche and Opel top – Dacia, Fiat and Ford flop

Stand: 15:34 | Reading time: 3 minutes

KA great luxury, no unnecessary extras: the Romanian carmaker Dacia, which belongs to Renault, likes to advertise the construction of a car for people who do not need a status symbol. Even Dacia drivers shouldn’t want to do without these extras: durability and reliability.

In the current report by the TÜV association, presented Thursday, three models from the Romanian carmaker took lower positions in the share of vehicles with “significant defects”. Of all the cars examined between the ages of two and three, 11% of the “Duster” model already had significant defects. It was 10.4 percent for the “Logan” and 10.9 percent for the “Lodgy” van.

These include inspectors who endanger road safety, such as an oily engine or faulty lighting. And in the age groups between six and seven and eight and nine, the “Dacia Logan” was in the queue. It even found a rate of around 31% and 34%, respectively, of significant defects.

But among the losers there is also a popular German car – the VW Sharan. In the four to five year age group, the model has the highest defect rate around 20%. For the TÜV 2021 Report, approximately 8.8 million general vehicle inspections were assessed, which were carried out from July 2019 to June 2020.

As in the previous year, the overall winner is the Mercedes GLC. At 1.7%, the SUV has the lowest rate of vehicles with significant defects among vehicles of two or three years. The second place among the youngest cars is shared by three models.

These include, on the one hand, the Mercedes B-Class and the Porsche 911, but there is also a big surprise between them: with the Opel Insignia, a mid-range model from a mass manufacturer took the podium. In each of the three models, only 2.2% of the vehicles had significant defects.

The result is a good sign for the automotive industry in this country, says Joachim Bühler, CEO of the TÜV association. “The German premium producers are way ahead”. However, foreign car brands have also caught up. “Hyundai has developed very well,” said Bühler. The compact i30 ranks sixth among children aged two to three.

Competing organization Dekra is also evaluating the findings related to the deficiencies. There it was confirmed that one in five cars did not receive a sticker due to significant defects in the main inspection. However, the TÜV numbers do not provide any direct information on the reliability of the models. “Of course, the vehicles are used differently,” says Bühler. Cars are valued based on their current condition, regardless of the driver’s clientele and mileage. This should favor premium vehicles in valuation, after all, owners usually invest more in maintenance and leave vehicles standing more often.

In total, almost one in five cars did not receive a sticker from the TÜV test centers during the main inspection due to significant defects. The most common problems were caused by lighting, followed by oil leakage and damage to the axle suspension. Compared to the same period last year, however, the percentage of vehicles that did not pass the general inspection decreased by 1.6 percentage points.

“The technical safety of vehicles on German roads has improved slightly,” said Bühler. However, this could also be due to a positive “corona effect”. As drivers left their cars more often during the pandemic, there was less wear and tear. Additionally, many owners could have used the car-free time to catch up on deferred repairs.

Incidentally, electric cars aren’t on the list yet. According to the TÜV, the registration data is still too young for this.