(Fri 05 Jun 09)

Lexus has been named top manufacturer in the J D Power Associates/What Car? UK Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Survey. The Survey has been revised for 2009, but if you include the previous version, known as the Customer Satisfaction Index, Lexus has been number one for the past nine years.

A perfect score in the Survey is 1000 points, and although Lexus couldn't match its 2008 figure of 866, it was still - at 833 points - well ahead of the opposition. This was led by Honda on 817, followed by Mercedes-Benz on 808 and Skoda and Toyota on 805 each. Jaguar, MINI, Porsche, BMW and Volvo completed the top ten.

The average score for manufacturers was 781 points, achieved by Nissan and SEAT and missed by just one point by Land Rover. Among the manufacturers with a large enough customer sample for the survey, Fiat had the lowest score of 751, followed by Chrysler, Chevrolet, Vauxhall and Renault.

The highest-rated individual model, by a long way, was the Lexus RX, which achieved 853 points, while second place went to the Toyota Prius hybrid on 843. Toyota, which owns Lexus, must be rather pleased about this, and must also be hoping that the new RX and Prius which are going on sale this year will score even more highly in future Surveys.

The RX and Prius were rated at the top of the SUV and Upper Medium Car categories respectively. Other category leaders were the Toyota Aygo (City Car), Honda Jazz (Small Car), Skoda Octavia (Lower Medium Car), Audi A6 (Executive/Luxury), Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class (Sports Car) and Citroen Grand Picasso (MPV).

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