The Kinsey Report has been produced by Malcom Kinsey for 25 years and it has enormous value for the customers, who save money, and the motor industry who can use unfavourable results as a lever when negotiating prices with their overseas suppliers.
A good example of all this is the turnabout by Renault, Peugeot and Citroën in recent years, with all three French manufacturers shaping very well of late.
Kinsey compiles his annual report by anonymously obtaining spares prices for the selected vehicles - 74 this year - from authorised dealers, all in the same month. The parts are grouped in categories - service items, repair parts and crash parts - for each car and then compared with their peers in different market segments.
When parts differ enough to confuse the issue - electric mirrors versus manually adjusted ones, for instance - this is either clearly explained or the items are omitted. The totals of each parts "basket" and the total parts costs per car are then shown as a total, and as a percentage of the price of that car new.
If a car retails for, say R100,000 and its parts baskets total R50,000 the car rates 50 percent. A car can be the cheapest for spares in real cash, but if the car itself is very affordable the cost percentage of the spares against the purchase price of the car may not be best in class.
Here are the various class winners for 2014. For a full breakdown visit www.kinseyreport.co.za
CITY CARS AND ENTRY LEVEL
The overall winner here is the Ford Figo which wins hands-down for its pricing of service, repair and crash-damage parts. Second is the VW Polo Vivo, with the Honda Brio 1.2 in third, marginally ahead of the Toyota Etios.
SUPER MINI
Citroën takes top-honours here with its DS3 VTi, with Peugeot's 208 next, followed by Hyundai's i20 1.4 Fluid. Citroën was cheapest for crash parts, while Peugeot scored second-best in both servicing and crash parts.
FAMILY FAVOURITES
Toyota took first and second places here, with the Quest narrowly beating the Corolla. Hyundai was third with the Elantra.
COMPACT CROSSOVER
The Ford EcoSport 1.0T wins here, followed by the Toyota Avanza and the Peugeot 2008.
CROSSOVER
This popular section is dominated by the Toyota Fortuner, ahead of the Kia Sportage and Hyundai IX35. Both Korean cars were let down by expensive clutch and flywheel assemblies, while the Toyota, an automatic, doesn't have either. Even without this advantage the Toyota was still tops.
DOUBLE CABS
India and China brought home the bacon here, with the Tata Xenon winning yet again, and the GWM Steed close behind. Nissan took third place with its NP300 Double Cab.
SINGLE CABS
Nissan's little NP200 and their NP300 Hardbody came home first and second, followed by the Toyota Hilux.
AUTO EXECUTIVES
The Audi A4 just pipped the Volvo S60, with the Hyundai Sonata closely behind. The total prices of their spares were R119,886, R122,408 and R125,704 respectively, which is relatively insignificant.
