Having spent the last month working for the Highways Agency I would like to take this time to make a few observations about the reliability of some cars. I see hundreds of breakdowns everyday, and far too many road traffic collisions. Without taking into account the number of people who run out of fuel or have punctures:

Firstly it is true about French cars - and Renault do seem to be the worst. Meganes in particular end up at the side of the road - often with engine management issues. The most popular Citroen to break down is the saxo, but no surprises there really as there is loads of them and they are starting to get quite old and are driven by stupid people who don't look after them. Not too many Peugeots end up on the hard shoulder - which is good.

When it comes to Vauxhall, the Zaferia is the one that seems to have the most issues, again plenty of cut out won't start and general loss of power. The old shape astra is very much at home on the hard shoulder as well.

When it comes to VAG, very few! Most commonly mk4 golfs - but then they make up about 50% of the cars on the road. I have only ever seen 1 mk2 octy with a genuine breakdown.

Merc/Bmw - Merc sprinter vans love rear ending things, on the whole very few breakdowns on the car side.

Fords and Fiats don't see too many of them, which is surprising given the reputation.

When it comes to driving stereotypes - Corsas of all ages are almost always are involved in accidents. Merc drivers are arrogant - for instance a bloke the other day called an SOS box and said that he 'better half had put the wrong fuel into the car' but when another male member of staff spoke to him he said that he had done it at Reading services.

Interesting stuff, thanks Emily

i bet cr4ppy dafs are the truck that breaks down most:rofl:

Rather have a DAF over a Merc any day of the week.

My preference would be

1. Scania

2. Volvo

3. DAF

Yup, DAFs are a very common breakdown, and tend to be driven by criminals.

Yup, DAFs are a very common breakdown, and tend to be driven by pikey bstard mutha fookers.

Iveco's do well when you break them

I used to work for Cummins.. and i believe most DAF's except the XF have Cummins engines in.. nowt wrong with a cummins :P must be something else to blame!!

I used to work for Cummins.. and i believe most DAF's except the XF have Cummins engines in.. nowt wrong with a cummins :P must be something else to blame!!

The Daf xf motor "looks" like a cummins, in a way that suggests it may have been copied

My Daf 95 XF never ever broke down. The Magnum on the other hand.....

Interesting Emily.

What is the most common obstruction for you to sweep out the carriageway?

From what i have seen of the XF lump its a huge messy looking thing. Not even on common rail which i believe all cummins on highway engines now are.

Has that huge fuel pump that runs almost the length of the engine.

Where as the cummins engines that paccar rebrand as their own look like

What is the most common obstruction for you to sweep out the carriageway?

Vauxhall Corsas

Vauxhall Corsas

No, Tyre debris is the most common. Mostly it is lorry related stuff, tarpaulin, straps and ropes etc.

On a non lorry related - Exhaust that have fallen off ch.avy cars, cones, hard hats, badgers and buckets.

No, Tyre debris is the most common. Mostly it is lorry related stuff, tarpaulin, straps and ropes etc.

On a non lorry related - Exhaust that have fallen off ch.avy cars, cones, hard hats, badgers and buckets.

No Wombles?

When it comes to Jap cars - they do well as well. Toyota seems to brake down the most followed by Nissan and then Hondas. The Rav 4 and latest shape MR2, and old Almeras are the ones that we seem to get most often, and old micras that have run out of fuel.

No Wombles?

People may laugh at it being a silly womble job, but it is really very interesting. I have personally been involved in having 3 people nicked - no insurance, dangerous driving and illegal tyres. People really do appreciate your help in what can be a really scary time for them - for instance I am often the first person someone speaks to right after an RTC.

The pay isn't bad (although I don't get london weighting) the pension is great and I get 30 days annual leave plus 10.5 privilege holidays (I.e. bank holidays but I can take them when I want to)

Is this the beginning of a new car reliability survey?

The E.E. Cross customer satisfaction survey ...

could you cross reference cars that break the most against those which are owned by certain groups that perhaps are renown for less than scrupulous servicing/tax/insurance ?

i wonder just how strong a correlation that would show?

could you cross reference cars that break the most against those which are owned by certain groups that perhaps are renown for less than scrupulous servicing/tax/insurance ?

i wonder just how strong a correlation that would show?

It would be possible in the sense that every log that is created by the Highways Agency is given certain codes when it is closed so that the office bods can do a certain search for logs that were created - for instance you can search for all Lorries that had a flat tyre than needed a lane one closure to change it.

Men tend to brake down more often than women - but I think that is because men are more likely to be driving on the motorway. It constantly amazes me the number of people who run out of fuel - surely it isn't that easy to do??

Also Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights tend to be when you get all the drunks wondering down the hard shoulder... more often that not the reason they are there is that their partners have kicked them out of the vehicle... The funniest thing to do is find them walking down the hard shoulder on CCTV then call an SOS phone while they walk past the box - scares the crap out of them. A bloke I work with did this when he found a pedestrain - turns out he was a paranoid schizophrenic type carrying a machetti... oops.

I used to work for Cummins.. and i believe most DAF's except the XF have Cummins engines in.. nowt wrong with a cummins :P must be something else to blame!!

I have worked for Daf dealers fof the last 13 years, and currently work at a dealership that also has Iveco and M.A.N.

The only current Dafs that use the cummins derived engine are the LF45,LF55,and CF65 , these engines are coded by Daf as BE and CE engines. The Ivecos use the same engines called the tector. The same engine is also used by M.A.N. (name eludes me) Thes engines, imho are nothing but trouble, especialy with fuel pumps and injectors, We have to attend several of these engine related problems avery week. The new engines are not a patch on the old cummins engines

The other Daf engines ( fitted to the CF75,CF85,XF95 and XF105) are pure Daf and pretty much problem free

In responce to a further post about Dafs being the most common hgv to break down, this is probably due to them being the top selling trucks, but in my experience, more Ivecos break down

In responce to apinners quote about the XF engine (known as the MX engine) being a messy looking thing, when you look at it against other large hgv engines, it is one of the simplest compact engines around, and what is the problem with it not being common rail?. Cummins dont have an engine fitted to any current range trucks due to there inability to reach euro 5 emmision levels.

I have worked for Daf dealers fof the last 13 years, and currently work at a dealership that also has Iveco and M.A.N.

The only current Dafs that use the cummins derived engine are the LF45,LF55,and CF65 , these engines are coded by Daf as BE and CE engines. The Ivecos use the same engines called the tector. The same engine is also used by M.A.N. (name eludes me) Thes engines, imho are nothing but trouble, especialy with fuel pumps and injectors, We have to attend several of these engine related problems avery week. The new engines are not a patch on the old cummins engines

The other Daf engines ( fitted to the CF75,CF85,XF95 and XF105) are pure Daf and pretty much problem free

In responce to a further post about Dafs being the most common hgv to break down, this is probably due to them being the top selling trucks, but in my experience, more Ivecos break down

In responce to apinners quote about the XF engine (known as the MX engine) being a messy looking thing, when you look at it against other large hgv engines, it is one of the simplest compact engines around, and what is the problem with it not being common rail?. Cummins dont have an engine fitted to any current range trucks due to there inability to reach euro 5 emmision levels.

having worked at two deaers both fixing and the other side,driving,i wouldn't wish a old erf 14litre cummins on my worst enemy,the eaton twin splitter is still the greatest gearbox ever,and dafs breakdown ALOT(allways raining when they do,at 1am on the hard shoulder thanks Dafaid)the finest drivers wagon has to be my current steed an r580 topline,soon to be replaced by a r620 topline,Scania King of the road:thumbup:

Must admit the Daf water cooled wiring system does have its faults, bur usualy on the LF series.

The scanias are not a bad truck but one of the worse to work on !!Personaly i would go for an XF105 space cab

Must admit the Daf water cooled wiring system does have its faults, bur usualy on the LF series.

The scanias are not a bad truck but one of the worse to work on !!Personaly i would go for an XF105 space cab

better now the mk 1234567890 clutch slave cylinder is on the outside of the gearbox:thumbup:

trouble with the dafs is they don't do a truck with enough power for my line of work,and all the boys would recon we were going bust if anything but a to spec scania turned up:rofl:

I have worked for Daf dealers fof the last 13 years, and currently work at a dealership that also has Iveco and M.A.N.

The only current Dafs that use the cummins derived engine are the LF45,LF55,and CF65 , these engines are coded by Daf as BE and CE engines. The Ivecos use the same engines called the tector. The same engine is also used by M.A.N. (name eludes me) Thes engines, imho are nothing but trouble, especialy with fuel pumps and injectors, We have to attend several of these engine related problems avery week. The new engines are not a patch on the old cummins engines

The other Daf engines ( fitted to the CF75,CF85,XF95 and XF105) are pure Daf and pretty much problem free

In responce to a further post about Dafs being the most common hgv to break down, this is probably due to them being the top selling trucks, but in my experience, more Ivecos break down

In responce to apinners quote about the XF engine (known as the MX engine) being a messy looking thing, when you look at it against other large hgv engines, it is one of the simplest compact engines around, and what is the problem with it not being common rail?. Cummins dont have an engine fitted to any current range trucks due to there inability to reach euro 5 emmision levels.

The cummins ISB the engine in quetion was co developed with Iveco over a contracted period, after that each company went their seperate ways to do with the engine as they please. As i worked for the cummins product development team in performance and emissions i know the ISB reaches euro 5, it just does not on any production engines or at least it didn't. Not sure why.. seems a bit daft! I think mainly because the SCR system causes nowt but trouble because the urea crystallizes in the pump and blocks it up! I have no doubt however that cummins are troublesome, they caused enough issues just running in the test cells and other companies like Caterpiller, MAN, Scania, Volvo etc all seem to pour a hell of alot more money into development.

Sorry i meant to say they dont have an engine in any current Heavy range if truck. The isb engine is in the lighter ranges

Apparently traffic was a tad bad coz of the Easter weekend and all that - strange - if there was any sense in the 'lets get people onto trains/public transport' they wouldnt do most of the engineering during those times where those who dont commute daily would possibly take their family on say a train.. Well engineering works would put you off for life if you had a couple of little kids to get off train, onto bus, onto train, etc etc instead of putting them in a car, strapped down & pulling off at the services after each hour or so traffic jam.

One observation having rejoined the UK roads, is the stubborn middle-lane-hogger type, boy do they annoy the hell out of me. And they never do anywhere near the NSL either, always nicely doing 65 mph on sat nav. Brilliant. Lorries undertake them, cars go round lane 3 then back to 1, and not even a hint of a chance of them moving into the lane they belong, lane 1, or not on the motorway at all