Media post: The most common motoring questions revealed

‘Why are SMART cars smart?’ ‘Why is my Audi losing power?’ ‘Why are Skodas so reliable?’

A study conducted by researchers at ethical car recycling company scrapcarnetwork.org has revealed the most commonly asked car and motoring questions. By analysing Google search data, the researchers discovered the most common questions asked about the biggest car brands and most popular models.

‘What’s wrong with my car?’ – What owners have been asking

The research team analysed the most popular search queries relating to the 20 best selling cars over the past decade. Most searches started with the words ‘why is my…’ or ‘why won’t my…’, suggesting they were concerned with an undiagnosed problem. The most commonly searched maintenance issues related to cars losing power. This was the most common search performed by Vauxhall Corsa, Audi A3, BMW 1 Series and Vauxhall Insignia drivers.

The second most commonly searched issue was about cars inexplicably beeping and was the most common query for Kia Sportage, Fiat 500 and Peugeot 208 drivers. Unexplained juddering was the most common question for Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Astra owners. Nissan Juke and Mercedes A-Class drivers most commonly made searches about why their cars wouldn’t start, MINI drivers were most concerned with their cars overheating, Ford Kuga drivers were worried about burning smells, Volkswagen Golf drivers had issues with their car losing coolant and Volkswagen Polo drivers were concerned about their cars losing water.

Just three of the top queries were not related to maintenance at all and suggested that some owners just needed basic information about their own car. Vauxhall Mokka drivers took to the Internet to find out if their car was a 4×4, Mercedes C-Class drivers wanted to know if their car was rear wheel drive and the most common search made by BMW 3 Series drivers, perhaps unsurprisingly, was ‘why is my BMW 3 Series the best?’.

Brand perceptions – what car buyers have been asking

As well as analysing the most common maintenance issues, the research term also examined perceptions of the world’s biggest car brands. The results were equally surprising. The most common queries about car brands had to do with reliability. The data shows that Citroen, Land Rover and Renault are perceived as the most unreliable car brands, with the most common queries related to those brands being ‘why are Citroens/Land Rovers/Renaults so unreliable?’ while Skoda and Toyota were perceived as the most reliable.

The jury is out on whether Alfa Romeo, Audi, Dacia, Dodge, Honda, Hyundai, Jeep, Mercedes, Nissan, Peugeot, Seat and Vauxhall are perceived as reliable or not. The most common searches related to these car makers was about whether or not they were reliable, for example, ‘are Alfa Romeos reliable?’

Some of the brand queries were a little more off-beat. For example, the most common search for SMART cars was ‘Why are SMART Cars smart?’ Other unexpected queries included ‘Why are Peugeots called pugs?’, ‘Are Land Rovers still being made?’, ‘Why are Jeep called Jeep and ‘Why are Maserati so cheap?’.

Even Brexit has influenced the UK’s perceptions of the world’s biggest car brands. The most common search related to the Nissan brand was ‘Why are Nissan leaving the UK?’.