How we test cars Which? Car Survey impact Dec 2011

The Which? Car Survey is the biggest of its kind in the UK. What you might not know is that the feedback we get from owners affects the ratings of each car we test.

The data we receive in the annual Which? Car Survey is fed into every car review

Our survey is unique in asking about cars of all ages. Whether you’re buying a new car or a second-hand model, our comparative owner feedback will help you make a better choice.

That’s why we consider reliability and owner satisfaction when choosing which cars to recommend.

Find out all you need to know about the Which? Car Survey in our guide.

If it's not reliable, it's not a Best Buy

A car can ace our road test, but if it lets owners down then it’s failed in its raison d’être. In such cases, cars are penalised in our scoring system.

We can only recommend cars as a Best Buy when we have sufficient and dependable reliability feedback to back it up.

Which? is the only car review provider that feeds the data from its survey directly into each and every car review that appears online and in our magazines.

Which? members can see our reliability ratings for brands and different car classes here.

Each car really is rated by you

As well as telling us how reliable or unreliable a car is, we also measure how satisfying you say a car is to own.

All this information is fed into our online car review pages, and you can easily access details for each model by clicking on the Which? Car Survey tab in our reviews.

The information you give us also helps us track any issues, such as potential problems with specific models, as well as areas of research we can focus on to improve the consumer information we provide our readers.