Top Gear Survey 2005 - the results

[Zafiro]

76,000 people, 159 cars - it's the UK's biggest independent car satisfaction survey.

Each of the 76,050 Top Gear viewers and readers who took part in our survey this year were asked to reveal how every aspect of the car ownership experience matched up to the expectations they had when they first took delivery of their vehicle.

Each car is given an overall satisfaction score out of 100. This is made up from:

Build quality (22%)

Craftsmanship (22%)

Driving experience (19%)

Ownership costs (17%)

Customer care (20%)

manufacturers' positions...

1 Lexus93.2
2 Skoda91.5
3 Honda90.0
4 Mazda88.9
5 Toyota88.4
6 Subaru88.3
7 Mini88.0
8 Porsche87.1
9 Jaguar87.0
10 BMW86.4
11 Hyundai86.1
12 Audi84.9
13 Volvo85.3
14 Saab84.1
15 Suzuki83.9
16 Seat83.6
17 Lotus83.5
18 Smart83.5
19 Nissan82.6
20 Chrysler82.2
21 Volkswagen82.2
22 Rover82.1
23 Kia82.1
24 Mitsubishi81.9
25 Ford81.7
26 MG80.9
27 Vauxhall80.6
28 Alfa Romeo79.9
29 Jeep79.4
30 Daewoo78.4
31 Land Rover78.2
32 Mercedes77.9
33 Citroën77.8
34 Renault76.4
35 Fiat76.0
36 Peugeot74.2

winning cars by class...from place 159 to 1
Top Gear

Few examples:
159 Peugeot 807
155 Mercedes M-Class
143 Mercedes A-Class
139 Mercedes E-Class
115 Mercedes C-Class
69 Audi A3
64 Audi A6/Allroad
55 Audi A4
54 BMW X5
49 BMW 5-Series
42 BMW Z4
38 BMW 3-Series
33 Porsche 911
30 BMW 5-Series (pre-June '03)
24 Toyota Corolla
11 Toyota Yaris
10 Subaru Forester
9 Skoda Fabia
8 Subaru Legacy
7 Honda Accord
6 Honda Jazz
5 Skoda Octavia
4 Skoda Superb
3 Lexus RX300
2 Lexus IS200/300
1 Honda S2000


French cars at the bottom and japanese cars at the top.
Mercedes didnt do well. Audi, BMW and Porsche did well. Surprisingly to see Skoda at the top.

 

[Alx]

Im not surprised, to see Lexus up there with Honda, what i am surprised about is 32nd place for Mercedes, even under Daewoo (thats scary).

You know i got to say this should be a wakeup call (if it wasnt years ago) as to how important it is to have good reliability, customer care, and a greater reputation. Though we all would love to have a V10 engines in a M5 (Ex.), the majority of the world doesn't care for the power, they focus on gas mileage, budget, RELIABILITY, and everyday use, and maintenance. This survey couldn't possibly make it any more clearer!

Thats also why alot of these big manufacturers are having money problems right now, and even on the brinks of Bankruptcy. Exec's better realize whats going on here.

 

[Zafiro]

Japanese are always at the top so no surprise. They are simply the best

 

[Giannis]

Volvo did better than Mercedes.

 

[Zafiro]

Volvo did better than Mercedes.

Volvo also did better than Saab

 

[notic]

mb did worse than kia. i guess all those jokes about kia around here arn't so funny all of a sudden.

 

[emarati]

Im not surprised, to see Lexus up there with Honda, what i am surprised about is 32nd place for Mercedes, even under Daewoo (thats scary).

You know i got to say this should be a wakeup call (if it wasnt years ago) as to how important it is to have good reliability, customer care, and a greater reputation. Though we all would love to have a V10 engines in a M5 (Ex.), the majority of the world doesn't care for the power, they focus on gas mileage, budget, RELIABILITY, and everyday use, and maintenance. This survey couldn't possibly make it any more clearer!

Thats also why alot of these big manufacturers are having money problems right now, and even on the brinks of Bankruptcy. Exec's better realize whats going on here.

Well said Alx.

 

[SDNR]

I agree with you emarati, Alex's post is very astute - I think sometimes, as car fans, we also often forget about the fundamentals.

 

[Giannis]

Volvo also did better than Saab

Volvo also did better than KIA

 

[Imhotep Evil]

Crap, only Porsche and BMW are on the top 10.

So Skoda, Seat are more reliable than VW.
Chrysler and Smart than MB.
And MINI than BMW ?!

What happened to my post Just_Me ?!

 

[Zafiro]

What happened to my post Just_Me ?!

I'm innocent. What post?

 

[Imhotep Evil]

I'm innocent. What post?

Sorry, my bad, I sorted things out with Tine.

 

[Yperion]

Japanese are always at the top so no surprise. They are simply the best

The best in what? For example Honda is better than BMW and Toyota better than Audi?

 

[Zafiro]

The best in what? For example Honda is better than BMW and Toyota better than Audi?

realibility, just sad facts

 

[cawimmer430]

I think what brought MB down big time in this survey were the:

W168 A-Class: patchy build quality, cheap interior, no wonder owners would rate it low

W163 M-Class: same as ^above^

W203 C-Class (pre-facelift): cheap interior and patchy build quality

 

[Yperion]

realibility, just sad facts

Sadly for the Japanese car makers reliability is only one of the factors that most people take into consideration and in every other aspect German car makers are better.

 

[audi_rudy]

well atleast some of the german brands did so welll. Thats just sad and not good of mercedes is trying to say that there getting better while there still so far down on that list

 

[bum-man]

Thats just sad and not good of mercedes is trying to say that there getting better while there still so far down on that list

It will be like that for a while, Mercedes problematic models will linger for quite some time.

 

[Beemer B773ER]

mb did worse than kia. i guess all those jokes about kia around here arn't so funny all of a sudden.

Who said they were jokes ? ...

Well, this survery simply isn't based on reliability... it is a customer satisfaction survery. Satisfy a customer means that the product has meet or exceeded the customer's expectations about the product. It could be the car had better quality than they thought, could have had better performance then they thought...or something like the, gave them a better feeling (emotionally) then they thought it would. The key point here is, the benchmark that each of the respondents used was not an objective one, but rather a subjective set of values.
All this really explains is how damn good Lexus is at meeting customer expectations...and considering their #1 position, you'd have to say they exceed their customer's expectations, and therefore leave them highly satisfied.
Maybe the reason why Skoda and even Kia is so highly places is because with those type of brands, the expectations of customers is not so high. You don't really expect a whole lot from those brands and their respective cars....so it would be a pleasant suprise if the car drove better than you thought.. or simply that you were very satisfied that the car was economical, and therefore, that made you feel good (and hence satisfied) because you don't have to worry about fuel mileage issues.

As i said... a customer satisfaction survey is exactly, a survey measuring how well the product met the consumer's pre-determined expectations. These expectations may be greatly influenced by the company's marketing promotions and advertising, from friends and relatives who own the car or know a great deal about it... or information from public sources (eg: magazines) .... so I guess in the end it comes down to how well the company can deliver on their claims about their product/s. We all know Lexus has that down pat since they continually end up atop these type of surveys.