Their subscribers report any issues they’ve had with their cars in a yearly survey. They average around 300,000 surveys returned each year, and cars are scored based on the number of issues per 100 of that particular model for each year. Issues are weighted differently depending on how major they are, with drivetrain issues carrying more weight than a piece of trip coming off, or a blemish in the factory paint for example. Cars of a particular model and model year that don’t receive enough reviews to get a reliable data set don’t have their scores published.
Mini is scoring well because:
A) They only have two models.
B) Those two models share a drivetrain that’s proven to be very reliable. The BMW B38 is a stoute engine, and it’s big brother B48 is used in both the John Cooper Works and the Toyota Supra.
C) Those two models are mechanically unchanged since 2014. They were in CR’s top ten starting back in 2015 (again, B38 is a great engine) and have had nearly 10 years to iron out everything else.
Meanwhile, VW is having a genuinely bad time right now. Their score is somewhat unfairly low due to an absurdly large number of older drivers having issues with their centre console and HVAC controls, and that’s warranted to a point. I sat in a new GTI several months ago, and I have never experienced interior controls as badly implemented as that thing. My god it was bad. I’m close friends with a VW parts/tech manager, and he says they are constantly having people in who are having issues with touch screens (they are laggy as fuck to be fair) and haptic controls. Beyond that, according to him, they definitely aren’t 100% out of the woods when it comes to the known water pump problems, leaking sunroofs, and various electrical gremlins aside from the bad touch screens. Lots of faulty window and mirror motors, and apparently a Tiguan that had a gas odometer that would go up as you drove it instead of down.
Their subscribers report any issues they’ve had with their cars in a yearly survey. They average around 300,000 surveys returned each year, and cars are scored based on the number of issues per 100 of that particular model for each year. Issues are weighted differently depending on how major they are, with drivetrain issues carrying more weight than a piece of trip coming off, or a blemish in the factory paint for example. Cars of a particular model and model year that don’t receive enough reviews to get a reliable data set don’t have their scores published.
Mini is scoring well because:
A) They only have two models.
B) Those two models share a drivetrain that’s proven to be very reliable. The BMW B38 is a stoute engine, and it’s big brother B48 is used in both the John Cooper Works and the Toyota Supra.
C) Those two models are mechanically unchanged since 2014. They were in CR’s top ten starting back in 2015 (again, B38 is a great engine) and have had nearly 10 years to iron out everything else.
Meanwhile, VW is having a genuinely bad time right now. Their score is somewhat unfairly low due to an absurdly large number of older drivers having issues with their centre console and HVAC controls, and that’s warranted to a point. I sat in a new GTI several months ago, and I have never experienced interior controls as badly implemented as that thing. My god it was bad. I’m close friends with a VW parts/tech manager, and he says they are constantly having people in who are having issues with touch screens (they are laggy as fuck to be fair) and haptic controls. Beyond that, according to him, they definitely aren’t 100% out of the woods when it comes to the known water pump problems, leaking sunroofs, and various electrical gremlins aside from the bad touch screens. Lots of faulty window and mirror motors, and apparently a Tiguan that had a gas odometer that would go up as you drove it instead of down.