What Car? Reliability Supertest 2007 - Introduction

Should your toaster go on the blink, the worst you're liable to be left with is a limp slice of bread - but if your car breaks down, you might have to shell out a lot of bread.

Dependability varies significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer, which is why we name the saints and the sinners every year in our authoritative Reliability Survey.

Getting information from manufacturers about what's going wrong with their cars is like getting blood out of a stone. They strive to keep such information firmly under wraps.

Instead, we team up with independent warranty provider Warranty Direct (www.warrantydirect.co.uk, 0800 731 7001) and access detailed data on tens of thousands of cars.

There's plenty of information on offer here. As well as discovering what goes wrong, and how often, our Reliability Survey pinpoints the average length of time that it takes to get cars back on the road again and how much garages charge to put them right.

This year, we've looked at 26 manufacturers, from Alfa to Volvo, and 133 models.

Every category of car - from superminis to MPVs and 4x4s all the way up to sports cars - has come under our scrutiny.

You might think it's easy to tell which makes are going to come out on top - yes, Japanese brands perform very well again - but there are some surprises along the way.

So read on and arm yourself with some of the most valuable car buying advice around.