(Tue 30 Jun 09)

Daihatsu has been named the top manufacturer in this year's German J D Power Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study. Daihatsu scored 843 points out of a possible 1000 - scoring particularly well for service satisfaction and ownership costs - and beat Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz (835 points each), BMW (834), Audi and Toyota (831 each).

The industry average score was 814, and several manufacturers struggled to get anywhere near that. The worst performer was smart on 772 points, followed by Chevrolet on 775, Fiat on 778 and Kia, Peugeot and Vauxhall/Opel all on 790.

The Daihatsu Sirion (pictured) was the highest scorer in the Small Car category. Other category winners were the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and CLK-Class, the Toyota Aygo and Corolla, the Renault Laguna, the Skoda Roomster and the Nissan Qashqai.

Overall, the top-scoring car was the Mercedes CLK-Class (pictured), followed by the BMW Z4, the Nissan Qashqai and, tied in fourth place, the Mercedes E-Class and Renault Laguna.

Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted that there has been no mention so far of Lexus, which was recently named top manufacturer in the UK J D Power survey for the ninth consecutive year (see separate story). The reason is that the survey does ignores brands below a certain sample size, and Lexus, along with Chrysler, Land Rover, Porsche (yes, really), Saab and Subaru all failed to make the cut.