Skoda named top car manufacturer: survey

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Skoda named top car manufacturer: survey
PETER WOODMAN
July 22, 2010
Skoda is 'Superb' according to survey. Pictured: Skoda Superb.
Skoda, once seen as a motoring figure of fun, has been named as best car manufacturer in a major survey by Which? Car magazine.

Skoda, once seen as a motoring figure of fun, has been named as best car manufacturer in a major survey by Which? Car magazine.

The Czech company's fortunes have revived since its takeover by Germany's Volkswagen.

On Thursday it pushed Lexus into second place, with Mazda third.

The survey, involving more than 64,000 Which? members and more than 66,000 cars up to eight years old, showed that, of sports cars, Porsche topped the customer satisfaction table.

Second was Daihatsu, with Lexus third. MG was at the bottom of the sports-car satisfaction table being rated as "poor" along with Vauxhall, Peugeot, Chrysler and Renault.

Topping the satisfaction table for an individual car model was the Honda Accord, followed by the Honda S200 and the Mazda MX-5.

The Honda Accord scored 97 per cent in this category in contrast to the cars at the bottom of the satisfaction table, with the Renault Laguna scoring only 51 per cent and the Renault Espace last of all with just 48 per cent.

The Kia Pacinto topped the table for new-car reliability (0-3 years) in the supermini sector, with the Seat Ibiza bottom of the list.

The Mazda 3 was considered the best medium car for new-car reliability with the Nissan Qashqai bottom.

In the large car sector, the most-reliable was the Honda Insight, with the Ford Mondeo bottom of this particular table.

The most-reliable luxury car was the Mercedes-Benz E-class, with the Volkswagen Golf Plus the best in the multi-purpose vehicle sector; the Toyota RAV4 the most reliable 4x4 or sports utility vehicle; and the Mercedes-Benz SLK named the best sports car.

In the manufacturers' reliability section of the survey, Daihatsu, with a score of 86.8 per cent was top of the table, with Land Rover last on 67.5 per cent.

Japanese companies dominated the top positions for reliability, taking eight places in the top 10, with Honda second, Toyota third and Mazda fourth.

Daihatsu was also considered the best company when it came to servicing cars, with Lexus second and Honda third. Bottom of this table was Fiat.

Despite the adverse publicity surrounding the recall of millions of Toyota cars worldwide in recent months, the company's luxury arm - Lexus - topped the best-dealership table, with MG bottom.

Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said: "You don't expect a new car to go wrong - but our rigorous research shows there's a big difference between the best and worst.

"Some small cars, particularly Korean and Japanese superminis, run like clockwork.

"Whereas some bigger cars, which you might expect to be more robust, aren't all they're cracked up to be."

My comment..it would be interesting as to why the MONDEO was voted least reliable large car ???