Japanese cars voted most reliable

JAPANESE car manufacturers have swept the board in a major reliability survey published by Which? Car magazine.

Japanese companies took eight of the first ten places in the magazine's manufacturer reliability table.

Daihatsu, with a score of 86.8 per cent was top of the table, with Honda second, Toyota third and Mazda fourth. Land Rover was last on 67.5 per cent.

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 Picanto topped the table for new car reliability (nought to three 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, while the Volks-wagen Golf Plus was 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.

Daihatsu was 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 super-minis, run like clockwork, whereas some bigger cars, which you might expect to be more robust, aren't all they are cracked up to be."

In its latest edition, Which? Car also included details of its best car manufacturer award — first announced earlier this year — which went to Skoda, once seen as a motoring figure of fun but now considered a quality marque

The Czech company's fortunes have revived since its takeover by Germany's Volkswagen and yesterday it pushed Lexus into second place, with Mazda third.

The company welcomed the plaudit last night as it announced record UK sales.

Robert Hazelwood, Skoda UKs director, explained that the company has sold 61 per cent more cars so far this year than it did in the same period in 2009.

"Taking into account our record order bank of nearly 11,000 cars awaiting delivery to customers, we are tracking towards a record-ever sales result in the UK for 2010," Mr Hazelwood added.

Sales of the Octavia, a favourite with families and private hire car drivers, rose by 75 per cent on last year and the Roomster experienced an increase of 37 per cent.