About this project

What is apkstat.nl?

apkstat.nl is an independent project that analyzes APK inspection data from the RDW (Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer) to provide insights into the reliability of car brands and models in the Netherlands.

Our goal is to help consumers make informed decisions when buying a used car by highlighting which vehicles have the lowest and highest defect rates during their mandatory technical inspections.

Methodology

The statistics on this site are calculated using the official RDW Open Data datasets:

How we calculate defect rates

To ensure fair comparisons between brands and models of different ages, we use the following metrics:

Defects per Vehicle Year

This is our primary metric. We calculate the total number of defects a vehicle has had over its lifetime, divided by its age in years. This normalizes the data so that older cars aren't unfairly penalized simply because they've been inspected more times.

Average Defects per Inspection

The average number of defects found during a single APK inspection.

Wear & Tear vs. Reliability Defects

Not all defects indicate poor build quality. Some components (like tires, brake pads, and wiper blades) are expected to wear out over time. In our analysis, we categorize defects into two types:

Wear and Tear:

Tires, brakes, wipers, lights, and minor suspension components.

Build Quality (Reliability):

Engine, transmission, chassis corrosion, electronics, and major structural issues.

By default, our statistics include all defects. You can use the 'Filter Defects' button on the statistics pages to exclude wear and tear items and focus purely on build quality issues.

Data Limitations

When interpreting these statistics, please keep the following in mind:

  • Owner Maintenance: A vehicle with many defects might just have an owner who defers maintenance until the APK inspection.
  • Minimum Sample Size: We only include models with at least 500 inspections to ensure statistical significance.
  • Data Completeness: The RDW data primarily covers inspections from 2014 onwards.