Car Reliability: Do France, the UK and the Netherlands Agree?

The roadworthiness test isn’t just a French formality. The UK (DVSA, MOT tests) and the Netherlands (RDW, APK inspection) also publish their inspection data as open data. Cross-referencing these three sources for the same models raises a simple question: is a car judged reliable in France also reliable elsewhere? We compared three generations sold across all three markets — Renault Clio IV, Renault Clio V and Peugeot 3008 II — at a comparable age, each measured against its own national average.

What the comparison shows

Renault Clio V: the case that contradicts the French ranking

	France	UK	Netherlands
Failure rate (3-5 years)	14.4%	18.7%	28.5%*
National average (same age band)	18.9%	14.7%	23.2%
Gap	-4.5 pts	+4.0 pts	+5.3 pts*

This is the most counter-intuitive case of the three. In France, the Clio V ranks below the national average: relatively reliable compared with the rest of the fleet. In the UK, over the same age band, it’s the opposite — it ranks above the DVSA average. The same model, the same generation, two opposite positions relative to their respective national averages.

Peugeot 3008 II: markedly more reliable in France than elsewhere

	France	UK	Netherlands
Failure rate	7.0%	14.2%	24.7%*
National average (same age band, 3-5 years)	18.9%	14.7%	23.2%
Gap	-11.9 pts	-0.5 pt	+1.5 pt*

Here there’s no outright contradiction, just a marked difference of degree. The 3008 II posts the best score of the three in France — nearly 12 points below the national average, a very good result. In both the UK and the Netherlands, it sits close to its market average, neither particularly good nor bad. France stands out; the other two countries don’t.

Renault Clio IV: the case where all three countries agree

	France	UK	Netherlands
Failure rate (5-8 years)	26.6%	33.3%	31.3%*
National average (same age band)	18.9%	20.5%	26.5%
Gap	+7.7 pts	+12.8 pts	+4.8 pts*

Unlike the two previous cases, the Clio IV shows that a model can perfectly well confirm its reputation across markets: above the national average in France, the UK and the Netherlands alike. That’s a useful reminder — international comparison doesn’t always say “countries disagree”; more than anything, it says you need to check rather than assume.

* The Netherlands (RDW) doesn’t publish generation-level detail for these models: the Dutch rate aggregates all Clio or 3008 generations within the same age band, which slightly dilutes the reading compared with the French and UK figures, which are precise per generation.

Why these gaps exist (probably)

Across all three models, one fault consistently tops the list of reasons for failure in the UK: tyre wear (insufficient tread depth, below 1.6mm), and in the Netherlands, tyres and number-plate lighting also dominate the list of the most frequent faults. That’s not proof that tyres explain the whole gap — but it points to plausible leads rather than pure statistical chance.

Several factors could explain the gaps between markets, without these data alone letting us say which one dominates: driving conditions and climate, maintenance habits (how often tyres get checked, for instance), equipment levels that vary by market (the same generation isn’t always specced identically in France, the UK and the Netherlands), and the testing methodologies themselves, which aren’t perfectly identical from one country to another (see our methodology page, in French). On top of that, this comparison has a limitation of its own: the French rate isn’t segmented by vehicle age, unlike the British and Dutch data — so we matched the figures as closely as we could, without being able to align them perfectly.

See the detail by model

The site has a full page for every generation tracked in the UK and the Netherlands (both in French), plus a “Weak points observed abroad” section directly on the relevant French model pages: Renault Clio IV, Renault Clio V and Peugeot 3008 II (in French).

Source data: UTAC-OTC (France), DVSA MOT (UK, Open Government Licence v3.0), RDW (Netherlands, CC0 licence). Full methodology and the limits of this comparison on the methodology page (in French).