How we pick

01

Two numbers, and why they are different

The NCT tests roughly fifty things, and a car fails if any one of them is wrong. A blown bulb fails a car. So does a corroded subframe. The pass rate treats them the same. We show the pass rate because it is the figure you can check anywhere. But we rank cars on a second number that counts only the faults that are about the car itself: engine, emissions, steering, suspension, shock absorbers, wheel alignment and structural corrosion. Brakes, tyres, lights and wipers are left out — those tell you about the person who owned it last, not about what you are buying. Both come from the same 12.5 million NCT tests, and both compare a car against every other car of the same age tested in the same year.

02

Where our data comes from

We build each entry from NCT results, UK MOT failure data for the same models, manufacturer recalls and technical bulletins, owner-reported fault patterns, and a review by a working mechanic. Every car in the database is marked verified before it can be recommended.

03

Known problems: where they come from

The NCT grade on each car is measured: it comes from 12.5 million Irish NCT results published by the Road Safety Authority.

The "Known problems for this version" section is different. It's built from published reliability sources, not NCT data. Every problem we list — except those marked "Reported by several owners", explained below — has at least one credible source you can click through to: official recall notices (the CCPC and the Road Safety Authority in Ireland, and the UK government's recall register), established motoring publications such as What Car, Honest John, Parkers and Auto Express, or named repair specialists.

A few problems are marked "Reported by several owners". These come from three or more separate owner reports but haven't yet been confirmed by a published source. They never change our verdict.

Recalls are listed so you can check them, but they never change the verdict — a dealer fixes them free. Always ask the seller or a dealer to confirm open recalls from the car's VIN.

The severity, the checks and the "ask the seller for" advice are Car Genies guidance, based on those sources.

"Not researched yet" means exactly that — we haven't covered that car yet, not that it's problem-free. We currently cover 31 of the most common models in Ireland.

We don't take money from dealers, brands or partners, and none can pay to change a verdict.

04

Why we avoid the first years of a new model

New generations and new engines are usually fixed in service. Faults get found by early owners and quietly corrected a year or two in. So unless a model has a clean record from launch, we point you at the later years of a generation.

05

How we score cars

Plain code does the picking, not the AI. First we filter: cars rated below average or well below average for reliability are never recommended, and neither is any car priced more than 10% over your budget, any car of a body type you didn't pick, or any car with fewer than seven seats if you asked for seven. You can still look any rated car up in Check a car I found.

What's left is scored out of 100 on three things. Mechanical faults per car tested (50%): engine, emissions, steering, suspension, shock absorbers, wheel alignment and structural corrosion, measured from 12.5 million NCT tests and compared against every other car of the same age. How common the car is on Irish roads (25%), because a car you cannot find is no use. And how well the asking price fits your budget (25%).

These weights shift when you answer the priorities question. Each of your two priorities moves extra weight onto its own part of the score (reliability, running costs, or the most car for the money) and no part ever drops below 10%.

Brakes, tyres, lights and wipers are left out of the fault figure: those are facts about how the last owner maintained the car, not about the car. The overall pass rate is still shown on each card, because it is the figure you can check yourself.

Repair figures are estimates based on typical Irish repair prices for that model and age, not quotes. The results reflect the condition of cars presented for test, not manufacturer build quality.

06

Our independence promise

No dealer, brand or partner can pay to change a recommendation. We take no money from sellers. If nothing fits your needs, we say so rather than force three picks.