• Evaluation according to mileage – ignoring problems resulting from maintenance
• New vehicle class: Small vans
• Report available as a free app and online

German car manufacturers performed very well in the fault evaluation: That is what the 2014 DEKRA Used Car Report shows. In the leading testing organisation’s annual evaluation, German makes achieved the best ranking in six out of nine vehicle classes. As the vehicle showcasing the best properties across all mileage ranges, the title of “Best of All Classes” went to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. In the “Car of the Year” category, the B-Class was the front-runner, with the best fault index in a single mileage range. The results of the DEKRA Used Car Report are now available online and as a free app for mobile devices. In conducting the evaluations, the DEKRA experts filter through the results of 15 million primary inspections that have taken place over the past two years, looking for information that is relevant in evaluating used cars.

“Our Used Car Report acts as a guideline for potential used car buyers. It provides detailed information about the typical faults of particular models. At the same time, it ranks each vehicle in relation to similar models in the same market segment,” says Dr Gerd Neumann, Member of the Management Board of DEKRA Automobil GmbH, who is responsible for the area of testing and inspection.

For this reason, the DEKRA Used Car Report does not take into account typical problems resulting from maintenance, which have more to do with the vehicle’s owner than its construction, such as worn out tyres and wiper blades or defective exterior mirrors. “With this special form of evaluation, we can ensure that our statistics incorporate primarily faults specific to used cars,” explains Dr Neumann. “Both this and the lower limit for the number of units contribute to the statistically informative value of our report. Figures for a particular model are only displayed in the report if we have checked at least 1,000 vehicles of this model in the relevant mileage range over the evaluation period.”

The DEKRA Fault Index (DFI) is a key figure of the holistic evaluation. It calculates the percentage of vehicles without relevant faults as well as the percentage of vehicles with significant faults, thus increasing the accuracy of the statistical information. To calculate the DFI, the “without relevant faults” percentage value is deducted from the “with significant faults” value. This gives the faults classed as “significant” a greater weighting in the evaluation.

Evaluation according to vehicle class and mileage category
The mileage category is an important statistic for the DEKRA Used Car Report evaluation – in the DEKRA experts’ opinion, mileage has more of an effect on a vehicle’s susceptibility to faults than its age. A distinction is made between three mileage ranges for the models in each vehicle class (0–50,000 km, 50,001–100,000 km and 100,001–150,000 km).

An effective comparison is made possible through a total of nine different vehicle classes, from small cars to vans. This includes the latest “small vans” vehicle class, which was added this year. “This addition fills the last gap. Our report now covers practically the entire range of cars and vans,” says the CEO of DEKRA.

Winners in the individual vehicle classes
The DEKRA experts select the vehicle with the best DFI as the winner for each vehicle class:

• Mini/small cars: Audi A1 (DFI: 96.4)
• Compact class: BMW 1 Series (96.8)
• Medium class: Volvo S60 / V60 (98.7)
• Upper medium class/upper class: Mercedes-Benz E-Class (97.4).
• Sports cars: BMW Z4 (97.2)
• SUVs: Mercedes-Benz GLK (95.0)
• MPVs: Mercedes-Benz B-Class (99.2).
• Small vans: Škoda Roomster (83.1)
• Vans: Renault Master (83.1)

Winners in the overall evaluation
The vehicle that achieves the best evaluation results on average across all vehicle classes and all three mileage ranges receives the title “Best of All Classes”. This year, that accolade went to the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (DFI: 93.5), beating the Audi Q5 (91.0) and the Audi A5 (88.1). “The ‘Best of All Classes’ category factors in the usage period from 0 to 150,000 km. This generates a reliable result over longer mileages,” explains Dr Gerd Neumann.

The Mercedes-Benz B-Class (best DFI single value: 99.2) came out on top in the 2014 DEKRA Used Car Report “Car of the Year” category, followed by the Volvo S60 / V60 (98.7) and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (97.4).

German manufacturers perform very well
The 2014 DEKRA Used Car Report shows German manufacturers to be in a leading position once again for reliability and quality. Cars produced in Germany figure among the winners in six out of nine vehicle classes from small cars to vans. If we also take into account the best vehicles in the higher mileage ranges, they achieve 20 out of a total of 27 best rankings.

New special evaluation “Discontinued Popular Models” appears in the report for the second time
For the second time, the 2014 DEKRA Used Car Report included a feature evaluation under the title “Discontinued Popular Models”. This category represents a segment of the used car market that is becoming ever more important: vehicle models that have no longer been available as new cars for some time but that feature prominently on the used car market. According to DEKRA experts, potential buyers with a small budget in particular look for information targeted towards cars like this. In the feature evaluation, which has been expanded to include additional models, the mileage ranges in comparison with the other vehicle classes in the report are brought into line with the actual mileages: the mileages covered range from 50,000 km to 200,000 km.

The DEKRA Used Car Report available online and as an app
The results of the 2014 DEKRA Used Car Report are now available online at www.used-car-report.com and also as a free app for the iPhone, iPad and android mobile phones