A recent study conducted by the insurer Leocare revealed which car brands are most often faced with incidents such as breakdowns, accidents, flat tires, thefts, or acts of vandalism. Based on nearly 10,000 assistance requests between March 2023 and April 2024, this study highlights a worrying trend for French brands.
Renault and Peugeot top the incident ranking, closely followed by Volkswagen. These three brands consistently occupy the top positions in the various categories of incidents studied. The top 10 is completed by Mercedes, Citroën, Audi, Ford, Opel, Fiat, and Toyota.
Although these results may partly reflect the popularity of French brands in the domestic market, the study reveals a notable difference among these manufacturers: Citroën performs better in terms of reliability, recording fewer breakdown assistance requests than its share in the studied vehicle fleet would suggest.
The study also emphasizes a key factor: the aging of the French vehicle fleet. With an average age of 10.8 years, and even 12.5 years for vehicles over 4 years old subjected to technical inspections, the wear and tear of vehicles could partly explain the increase in breakdowns, exacerbated by the rise in prices of new and used cars.
Premium brand cars like Mercedes and Audi are more often involved in accidents or victims of vandalism. Mercedes, in particular, is exposed to a higher rate of malicious acts, a trend that, according to the study, could be linked to the perception of these brands and the behaviors they provoke.
However, it is important to nuance these results, as not all incidents studied reflect the manufacturing quality of the vehicles. External factors, such as accidents or vandalism, are not necessarily related to the intrinsic reliability of the car models in question.