Some of us around here believe that car reliability is a myth, a poor substitute for properly maintaining your vehicle. But few things suck worse than a new car that breaks down all the time, then breaks again after you get it fixed. What if all those cars combined, Voltron-style, into one amazingly unreliable piece of crap?
That's what the Horrific 40RR0R is, according to the UK website Warranty Direct's Reliability Index. They're an extended warranty service, and for this illustration they analyzed 50,000 live to incorporate aspects of the worst-performing cars into one single vehicle.
Besides the fact that it looks awful, it's also a total nightmare to maintain and live with every day. Here are the cars they chose:
| BMW M5 | Engine | (04 - 11) |
| Audi RS6 | Axle and Suspension | (02 - 11) |
| Jeep Grand Cherokee | Gearbox | (06 - ) |
| Mercedes-Benz R-Class | Electrics | (04 - ) |
| Fiat Multipla | Braking system | (99 - 05) |
| SEAT Alhambra | Air-conditioning | (96 - ) |
| Chrysler 300C | Steering system | (05 - ) |
You have to admit they picked some real duds. The old Audi RS6? The original Chrysler 300C and previous-gen Jeep Cherokee? The R-Class? All nightmare vehicles from a repair standpoint. America never got the Seat Alhambra or Fiat Multipla, but considering the brands they come from, I'll take Warranty Direct's advice that they were bad.
Sure, the V10 engine from the previous-generation M5 is probably a ton of fun to drive, but reliability was never its strong suit. The website says a quarter of their BMW M5 owners need repairs to their engines, just the same proportion of Fiat Multiplas will experience brake system problems.
You can keep your horror movies for Halloween. Few things are scarier than that.