What Car best and worst car makers, Do you agree?

[A205GTI]

The readers of the influential What Car? website have named Skoda the best car manufacturer 2010. It's yet another award for the Czech company, which also picked up the Best Small Family Car award for the Octavia.

However, Saab's recent resurgence has suffered a setback, as it was named worst manufacturer overall. The Swedish company has spent most of 2010 in transition, having been sold to Dutch firm Spyker by its former American owner, General Motors.

More surprising is the fact that Lexus featured in the bottom ten. The Japanese company and is more used to taking top reliability and customer satisfaction prizes.

German firm Volkswagen's place in the bottom three us something of a shock too, as it is also associated with reliability.

The What Car? Awards took the opinions of more than 30,000 readers this year, ranking individual cars in various categories. The full list of winners is below, but the BMW 1 Series Coupé finished highest overall, and the Ford Focus CC convertible was the lowest.

Of the BMW, What Car? Editor Steve Fowler said: "The results suggest that no one ever regrets buying a 1 Series Coupé, with the vast majority of readers dishing out a full five-star verdict."

Top ten manufacturers:

1. Skoda
2. Porsche
3. Daihatsu
4. Alfa Romeo
5. Hyundai
6. Jaguar
7. SEAT
8. Jeep
9. Mitsubishi
10. BMW

Bottom ten:

1. Saab
2. Vauxhall
3. Volkswagen
4. Peugeot
5. Chevrolet
6. Toyota
7. Ford
8. Lexus
9. Land Rover
10. Renault

Best supermini: Alfa Romeo MiTO
Best executive and luxury: Mercedes-Benz CLS
Best crossover and 4x4: Land Rover Defender
Best coupé: BMW 1-Series Coupé
Best estate: MINI Clubman
Best small family: Skoda Octavia
Bet open top: Lotus Elise
Best family and compact executive: Volkswagen Passat CC
Best MPV: Ford C-Max

[300bhp/ton]

So are there actually any figures for this?

What I find in most of these surveys is, that last place is actually usually very close to first place, but because they are forced into an order it makes some companies look far worse than they probably are.

Anyway, apart from mild interest, who really cares. I certainly wouldn't base my buying experience based on such a survey and it appears most Brits are still idiots and will continual to slate Jaguar depsite being in the top ten for countless years and still shout about how reliable VWs are......

[Hugo a Gogo]

I think a lot of it is down to expectation (also something to do with the dealer/servicing network)

VW buyers think they are buying ultra reliability and are disappointed
Skoda buyers of virtually the same products have lower expectations for their 'bargain brand' and are pleased

[jamieboy]

300bhp/ton said:

So are there actually any figures for this?

30,000-odd readers give their car a rating out of five stars.

Skoda in 1st place got 4.4, Saab in 31st (last) place got 3.3

Agree with what you say - slightly interesting, but probably no more value than that.

[va1o]

A205GTI said:

German firm Volkswagen's place in the bottom three us something of a shock too, as it is also associated with reliability.

They deserve that completely, although the cars are nice VW dealers are the worst I have ever encountered in my life, and the reliability isn't anything special these days.

[Negative Creep]

Nice to see Alfa doing well but I'm surprised Toyota and Lexus are so low. I always thought the latter in particular were supposed to be second to none for dealerships?

[thenortherner]

Lexus in the bottom 10?

[samdale]

Best estate: MINI Clubman

you-fking-what?

[BeeRoad]

What Car? in talking bks shocker. Not.

[john2443]

samdale said:

Best estate: MINI Clubman

you-fking-what?

^ What he said! A design done by a short sighted 8 yr old who wasn't told that we drive on the left and don't want our kids to get out of the one back door into the traffic!

I suppose it might be reliable and have good load carrying (don't know about that bit) but as a design it's awful, and it isn't mini, it's f'ing huge.

[driverdan]

dont think ford, toyota and vauxhall should be in the bottom ten they do great cars:s

[tali1]

Hugo a Gogo said:

I think a lot of it is down to expectation (also something to do with the dealer/servicing network)

VW buyers think they are buying ultra reliability and are disappointed
Skoda buyers of virtually the same products have lower expectations for their 'bargain brand' and are pleased

I agree- i think a lot of Skodas are actually up to class standards-no argument there but because it is a Skoda then they are artificailly upgraded to class beaters instead

[Pooh]

My Alfa Romeo Brera S is in getting a service and l have been given a Saab 93 as a loan car. It is about the same age and has done far fewer miles but has far more rattles, is badly built and inferior in almost every respect.
I think that the bad showing for Saab is probably deserved.