(Thu 03 Jun 10)

Toyota's luxury brand Lexus is the highest-scoring manufacturer in the J D Power/What Car? Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study for the tenth consecutive year, having frankly blown all the opposition into the weeds.

The Study rates brands on 67 attributes in four basic groups - in descending order of importance to the final score, vehicle appeal, quality and reliability, ownership costs and dealer satisfaction. The maximum possible score is 1000, and this year Lexus achieved 846. Second place went to Honda on 825, followed by Jaguar (818), Mercedes-Benz (817) and Toyota (814). Skoda which has figured very highly in previous J D Power surveys, was next up on 813, followed by BMW and MINI.

The average score for the Study was 789, scored by Mitsubishi and Saab and narrowly missed by Hyundai. Chevrolet was resolutely at the bottom of the list on 742.

Among individual models, the 867 scored by the Lexus RX was unbeatable. The two cars which came closest were the Lexus IS and Jaguar XF, which both scored 839 and were top of the Compact Executive and Executive/Luxury categories respectively. Other class leaders were the Toyota Aygo (City Car), Honda Jazz and Toyota Yaris (sharing Small Car), Kia cee'd (Lower Medium Car), Honda Accord (Upper Medium Car), Mazda MX-5 (Sports Car) and Mercedes-Benz B-Class (MPV).

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