The biggest problem with user reviews/reliability figures is sorting the company car user from the private punter. Few, if any, company car users will keep the car out of the warranty period so may never come across the problems a private punter will with a car out of warranty. However it doesn't take long to research a little on the Internet to find that a lot of the top driver reviews don't look so good when you get past the two or three year mark and are even worse when you look at manufacturer response to ongoing reliability issues.

Completely true - you need to read between the lines.

Some reviews can sound like gushing first impressions, the more useful ones are where someone has bought and owned the car for at least five or six years, or they have recently bought a much older car, and are happy with how it's holding up.

You can get a general impression of the reliability of a particular model but a test drive is essential to see if it's suitable.

You can still end up being unlucky and buying a lemon though!