TÜV’s report didn’t just look at cars that were two or three years old, though. Among cars that were between four and five years old, the top spots went to the Audi Q2 (4.5%), Volkswagen T-Roc (4.0%), and Volkswagen Golf Sportsvan (4.0%), while the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer (20.6%), Tesla Model 3 (21.0%), and BMW 5/6 Series (21.5%) brought up the rear.
Moving on to six- and seven-year-old cars, the ones with the fewest defects were the same as before, only in a slightly different order — the Audi Q2 (7.5%), Volkswagen Golf Sportsvan (6.9%), and Volkswagen T-Roc (6.7%). The list of shame, meanwhile, includes the VW Sharan (21.7%), BMW 5/6 Series (22.3%), and Dacia Duster (23.5%).
The eight- and nine-year-old category shakes things up a little bit, with the best cars being the Mercedes-Benz B-Class (11.0%), Volkswagen Golf Sportsvan (10.3%), and Mazda CX-3 (9.7%). The worst were the Dacia Sandero (27.8%), Dacia Duster (29.8%), and BMW 5/6 Series (29.9%). With 10 and 11-year-old cars, the best were the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (15.4%), Mercedes-Benz GLE (15.2%), and Mercedes-Benz B-Class (13.9%), while the worst were the BMW 5/6 Series (32.1%), Renault Twingo (32.1%), and Dacia Duster (34.2%).
Wrapping things up with the oldest cars they looked at in the 11- and 12-year-old categories, the cars with the fewest defects were the Mercedes-Benz GLE (19.3%), Mercedes-Benz B-Class (19.0%), and Volkswagen Touareg (17.9%). Meanwhile, the worst were the Dacia Sandero (38.1%), Renault Twingo (40.0%), and Renault Clio (40.4%).
Now, if you live in the U.S. like most of our readers, it won’t exactly help you very much to learn that the Volkswagen T-Roc did pretty well but that you should probably stay away from used Dacias. But you can definitely avoid the Tesla Model Y, as well as the Model 3. Unless you just love the idea of buying a car full of defects.
