It’s one thing to take a couple of cars for a spin around the block to see if you really like them, but wouldn’t you like to know how your next car is going to stand the test of time?

This exhaustive What Car? poll records the judgements of 16,840 motorists – car owners whose opinions have been formed over a combined total of almost 300 million miles.They rated their cars in minute detail so that future buyers will know what potential purchases are really like to live with.

The JD Power survey assesses nine classes of car, from city cars to executive cars and SUVs. They’ve been judged by the same criteria, including mechanical reliability, desirability, running costs and dealer service.

How old were the cars in this survey?

All were registered between January 2008 and December 2009. The survey was carried out between November 2010 and February 2011, so the cars were anything from one to three years old.

What was assessed?

The survey was split into four sections: vehicle quality and reliability, vehicle appeal, service satisfaction and ownership costs. The first section allowed owners to comment on any faults or problems the cars suffered; the second recorded what they thought about the design of their cars and how well they
did their job; and the third and fourth sections gave owners the chance to comment on the quality of service dealers provided, and how satisfied or appalled they were with costs they ran up.

How was the overall score decided?

The weighting accorded to the different categories was dictated by the surveys themselves, so if owners rated a section as particularly important it was given greater emphasis. The total scores awarded by owners were split as follows: vehicle quality and reliability (24%), vehicle appeal (37%), dealer service satisfaction (17%), and ownership costs (22%). The same weightings were used in the previous two years, so you can compare results.

The Results

City Car Winner. Toyota Aygo!

Supermini. Honda Jazz, the Toyota Yaris was 5th

Small Family Car. Winner Skoda Octavia, Toyota Auris 12th

Family Car. Winner Honda Accord. Toyota Prius 2nd

Compact Executive Winner. Lexus IS

SUV Winner Lexus RS. Toyota RAV4 3rd

To discuss this or any other subject, please feel free to use our LIVE CHAT facility or you can CONTACT US here