19 least reliable cars according to ADAC (2020)

The German ADAC automobile association regularly publishes a car reliability index according to the number of breakdowns by its yellow angels and the number of defects that have occurred in broken cars.

In the statistics for 2020, all the 3,756,226 breakdowns of ADAC yellow angels and their partners in 2019 were recorded and evaluated. With a total of 113 models of 25 brands, there is enough data available to provide an objective picture of their reliability.

All the makes and models can be found here

Tip: The most recalled cars in 2020

A-segment / City car / Minicompact

The clear loser in this category is the Smart ForFour, which has had many defects, especially with the models produced in 2015 and 2016. Even the sibling Smart ForTwo from this period of production is not without faults. There are problems with the starter, automated shifting and battery. The Fiat 500 made in 2014 or 2015 is also not a good choice, it often has problems with the battery and shifting.

Smart ForFour

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
					30,1	31,3	9,8

ForFour Recalls

Smart ForTwo

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
26,3	18,4	20,1	15,7	17,1	32,8	25,4	7,5

ForTwo Recalls

Fiat 500

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
27,2	27	25,9	23,4	26,8	29,5	17,1	7,1

Fiat 500 Recalls

Legend: Number of breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles registered (= breakdown index) by year of first registration (EZ)

B-segment / Supermini / Subcompact

The problem child in this category is the Hyundai i20 from 2011 to 2014. Most of the breakdowns in his case were due to defects in the ignition and spark plugs. The Opel Meriva from 2017 also has an alarming number of breakdowns. These are often associated with the cooling system: leaky hoses and defective water pumps.

Hyundai i20

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
28,5	40,8	45,9	47,2	31,5	9,7	4	3,1

Hyundai Recalls

Opel Meriva

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
28,8	25,2	27	21,9	22,1	16,6	11,9	12,7

Opel Meriva Recalls

Legend: Number of breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles registered (= breakdown index) by year of first registration (EZ)

Vehicle’s history VIN Check

C-segment / Small family / Compact

As in previous years, the Nissan Qashqai is a particularly bad choice. Problems occur in all the monitored production periods from 2010 to 2017. Kia Ceed from the 2011 has the highest total number of breakdowns this year. There is a wide range of different defects – so it is really difficult, if not impossible, to find a good used one. Other models from different production periods also performed badly: in alfabetical order – Ford C-MAX (2010), Ford Kuga (2012), Hyundai i30 (2010), KIA Sportage (2011), Peugeot 308 (2010-12), Renault Kangoo (2015) -17), and Renault Scénic (2014-15).

Nissan Qashqai

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
22,8	25,1	23,7	21,8	17,6	16,8	33,6	42,7

Nissan Qashqai Recalls

Kia Ceed

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
40,9	70,5	49,1	33,3	26,6	12	8,8	3,4

Kia Recalls

Ford C-Max

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
51,8	36	31,4	22,9	16,8	7,9	6,1	3,7

Ford C-Max Recalls

Ford Kuga

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
37,2	29,6	33,8	26,1	20,5	11,9	5,9	5,3

Ford Kuga Recalls

Hyundai i30

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
52,2	35,4	32,3	19,7	15,7	7,7	5,3	2,4

Hyundai i30 Recalls

Kia Sportage

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
	52,4	30,5	23	18,6	13,3	4	1,6

Kia Sportage Recalls

Peugeot 308

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
47,1	44	37,6		26,5	13,6	9,3	6,1

Peugeot 308 Recalls

Renault Kangoo

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
27,5	25,1	20,6	21,1	18,9	19,9	24	16,4

Renault Kangoo Recalls

Renault Scenic

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
35,4	33,5	25,2	18,7	28,6	27,7		7,2

Renault Scénic Recalls

Legend: Number of breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles registered (= breakdown index) by year of first registration (EZ)

If you wish to know more about eventual problems of a specific car (e.g. real mileage, potential traffic accidents damages, odometer rollback, repairs, etc.), then we suggest going to HPI-Check.

Check the vehicle’s history

D-segment / Large family / Mid-size

The middle class also includes the MPVs Ford S-Max, Seat Alhambra and VW Sharan with a high frequency of breakdowns. With the Ford S-Max, not only does the battery fail frequently, but also the particle filter, the fuel pump or the generator. The poor result with the Seat Alhambra and VW Sharan is mostly caused by problems with the exhaust gas recirculation. The Opel Insignia from 2015-2016 is not a good choice either.

Ford S-Max

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
56,9	26,2	21,8	16,9	13,4		20,9	10,8

Ford S-Max Recalls

Seat Alhambra

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
			36,9	38,5	18,2	12,9	14,4

Seat Alhambra Recalls

VW Sharan

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
	39	27,1	40,6	36,2	19	10,1	12,1

VW Sharan Recalls

Opel Insignia

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
38,7	35,4	29,2	31,7	26,1	29,5	22,6	10,7

Opel Insignia Recalls

Legend: Number of breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles registered (= breakdown index) by year of first registration (EZ)

E-segment / Executive / Full-size

The nine and ten-year-old Mercedes E-Classes have given off a bad picture. Problems with components such as the starter, the ignition lock and the battery add up to worn hoses and defects in the steering. The balance only improves the E-Classes from the year of production between 2013 and 2014.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

EZ 2010	EZ 2011	EZ 2012	EZ 2013	EZ 2014	EZ 2015	EZ 2016	EZ 2017
59,3	49,1	31,8	17,7	12,1	10,9	7,2	1,7

Mercedes E-Class Recalls

Legend: Number of breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles registered (= breakdown index) by year of first registration (EZ)

All the makes and models can be found here

Source: ADAC

Where now?

Cookie	Description
PugT	This cookie is set by pubmatic.com. The purpose of the cookie is to check when the cookies were last updated on the browser in order to limit the number of calls to the server-side cookie store.
SPugT	This cookie is set by pubmatic.com. The cookie is used in conjuction with the PugT cookie to track when the server-side cookie store was last updated for the browser.

Cookie	Description
AWSALB	AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It works slightly different from AWSELB.
test_cookie	This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the users' browser supports cookies.

Cookie	Description
__kuid	This cookie is used to collect information of the visitors, this informations is then stored as a ID string. The ID information strings is used to target groups having similar preferences, or for targeted ads.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_ljtrtb_26	This cookie is set by Lijit Advertising Platform. The cookie is used temporarily when multiple partners pass their IDs to the platform simultaneously. To avoid conflicts that arise from accessing ljtrtb cookie for multiple partners at the same time, separate cookies are used to store each partner's ID and they are consolidated to the ljtrtb cookie when it's available.
_ljtrtb_36	This cookie is set by Lijit Advertising Platform. The cookie is used temporarily when multiple partners pass their IDs to the platform simultaneously. To avoid conflicts that arise from accessing ljtrtb cookie for multiple partners at the same time, separate cookies are used to store each partner's ID and they are consolidated to the ljtrtb cookie when it's available.
_ljtrtb_56	This cookie is set by Lijit Advertising Platform. The cookie is used temporarily when multiple partners pass their IDs to the platform simultaneously. To avoid conflicts that arise from accessing ljtrtb cookie for multiple partners at the same time, separate cookies are used to store each partner's ID and they are consolidated to the ljtrtb cookie when it's available.
_nauid	The domain of this cookie is owned by N.Rich. The cookie is used for targeting and advertising purposes.
_rxuuid	The main purpose of this cookie is targeting, advertesing and effective marketing. This cookie is used to set a unique ID to the visitors, which allow third party advertisers to target the visitors with relevant advertisement up to 1 year.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
am-uid	This cookie is set by Admixer. The cookie is used to collect visitor behaviour from mutiple websites for serving them with relevant ads based on their preference.
ANON_ID_old	This cookie helps to categorise the users interest and to create profiles in terms of resales of targeted marketing. This cookie is used to collect user information such as what pages have been viewed on the website for creating profiles.
B	This Cookie is used by Yahoo to provide ads, contents or analytics.
bito	This cookie is set by bidr.io for advertisement purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookie is set by the provider Bidr. The main purpose is targeting and advertising. This cookie is used to serve the user with relevant advertisement based on real time bidding.
bsw_uid	This cookie is used to identify the visitors on their visits, across devices. It allows the website to show relevant advertisement to visitors.
chkChromeAb67Sec	This cookie is set by the provider Pubmatic. This cookie is used to serve the visitor with relevant contents and advertisement.
ctag	This cookies is set by Lijit platform. It is used to keep track of the partners whose ID and been synced with Lijit ID. It allows us to store the IDs that these partners use to identify you and pass it to data partners as part of our advertising services.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
DSID	This cookie is setup by doubleclick.net. This cookie is used by Google to make advertising more engaging to users and are stored under doubleclick.net. It contains an encrypted unique ID.
euid	This cookie is set by the provider Emerse.This cookie is used to present the visitor with relevant content and advertisement.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IDSYNC	This cookie is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	The cookie is set by pubmatic.com for identifying the visitors' website or device from which they visit PubMatic's partners' website.
KCCH	This cookie is set by Pubmatic. This cookie ensures that a PubMatic user ID is already set and that PubMatic’s code is running properly.
KRTBCOOKIE_279	The vendor of this cookie is Pubmatic. This cookie is used for targeting and advertising. It stores the information of the user behaviour including site visited and searches and provide with relevant contents and advertisements.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is set by pubmatic.com for the purpose of checking if third-party cookies are enabled on the user's website.
ljt_reader	This is a Lijit Advertising Platform cookie. The cookie is used for recognizing the browser or device when users return to their site or one of their partner's site.
ljtrtb	This cookie is set by Lijit Platform. It Enable to help the website's advertising partners make decisions about displaying an advertisement to users. The website stores the ID that each partner uses to identify users and pass that information to the partner when a website requests an advertisement from us.
ljtrtbexp	This cookie installed by Lijit platform indicates that individual third-party DSP cookies IDs needs to be refreshed.
mako_uid	This cookie is set under the domain ps.eyeota.net. The cookies is used to collect data about the users' visit to the website such as the pages visited. The data is used to create a users' profile in terms of their interest and demographic. This data is used for targeted advertising and marketing.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
ouuid	This cookie is used to store the unique visitor ID which helps in identifying the user on their revisit, to serve retargeted ads to the visitor.
ouuid_lu	This cookie is used for serving the retargeted ads to the users. This cookie is used in association with the cookie "ouuid".
pd	The cookie is provided by Openx.This cookie is used for advertising purposes.
pi	This is a targeting cookie, which is used for advertising.This cookie show the relevant adverts based on the visitors profile created by the cookie.
PUBMDCID	This cookie is set by pubmatic.com. The cookie stores an ID that is used to display ads on the users' browser.
rc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement.
repi	This cookie is set by Pubmatic.This cookie is a short-lived cookie that is used to determine if re-pixeling is in progress.
rud	The domain of this cookie is owned by Rocketfuel. The main purpose of this cookie is advertising. This cookie is used to identify an user by an alphanumeric ID. It register the user data like IP, location, visited website, ads clicked etc with this it optimize the ads display based on user behaviour.
ruds	The domain of this cookie is owned by Rocketfuel. This cookie is a session cookie version of the 'rud' cookie. It contain the user ID information. It is used to deliver targeted advertising across the networks.
sa-user-id	The cookie is set by StackAdapt used for advertisement purposes.
sa-user-id-v2	The cookie is set by StackAdapt used for advertisement purposes.
suid_legacy	This cookie is used to collect information on user preference and interactioin with the website campaign content. This cookie is used for promoting events and products by the webiste owners on CRM-campaign-platform.
t_gid	The cookie is set by taboola.com. The cookie assigns a unique user ID to users and use this ID for serving relevant advertisement and content.
tads_uid	The domain of this cookie is owned by Technorati.This cookie helps the user to share pages through social networking sites. The main purpose of this cookie is advertising.
TapAd_DID	The cookie is set by tapad.com. The purpose of the cookie is to track users across devices to enable targeted advertising

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
ANON_ID	This cookie is provided by Tribalfusion. The cookie is used to give a unique number to visitors, and collects data on user behaviour like what page have been visited. This cookie also helps to understand which sale has been generated by as a result of the advertisement served by third party.
auid	This cookie register a unique ID which identifies the user browser from visiting the webistes. This cookie collects the statistical data of the visitor for serving targeted ads.
browser_id	This cookie is used for identifying the visitor browser on re-visit to the website.
eud	The domain of this cookie is owned by Rocketfuel. This cookie is used to sync with partner systems to identify the users. This cookie contains partner user IDs and last successful match time.
GUC	This cookie is set by the provider Yahoo. This cookie is used for Yahoo conversion tracking.
matchpubmatic	This cookie is used for providing and analysing campaings. This cookie regulates the synchronisation of user data and exchange of user data with Pubmatic.
test_cookie
UserID1	The cookie sets a unique anonymous ID for a website visitor. This ID is used to continue to identify users across different sessions and track their activities on the website. The data collected is used for analysis.

A-segment / City car / Minicompact

Smart ForFour

Smart ForTwo

Fiat 500

B-segment / Supermini / Subcompact

Hyundai i20

Opel Meriva

C-segment / Small family / Compact

Nissan Qashqai

Kia Ceed

Ford C-Max

Ford Kuga

Hyundai i30

Kia Sportage

Peugeot 308

Renault Kangoo

Renault Scenic

D-segment / Large family / Mid-size

Ford S-Max

Seat Alhambra

VW Sharan

Opel Insignia

E-segment / Executive / Full-size

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Roman Beránek

Weekly Newsletter