MG Rover owners are less satisfied with their cars than other car owners

MG Rover came 28th in a list of 32 car makers, ranked by owner satisfaction.

Overall, MG Rover got 756 points out of 1,000 for owner satisfaction, well below the industry average of 786.

However, the survey also revealed that five of the top 20 most-satisfying cars to own are built in the UK, mostly by Japanese manufacturers.

The annual What Car? magazine survey, compiled by JD Power, is based on responses from more than 20,000 car owners.

Car makers with the highest satisfaction scores Lexus 848 Skoda 847 Honda 843 Toyota 835 BMW 829 Mini 827 Mazda 817 Volvo 817 Audi 810 Saab 808 Source: JD Power What Car? magazine survey (marks out of 1,000)

Owners marked their cars for reliability, comfort, practicality and how satisfying they are to own.

Japanese luxury car maker Lexus topped the owner satisfaction stakes, closely followed by Skoda - a manufacturer that used to be the butt of many jokes - Honda and Toyota. The Oxford-built Mini came sixth in the list.

At the other end of the scale, the four car makers that finished below MG Rover in the customer satisfaction stakes were Land Rover, Peugeot, Fiat and Alfa Romeo.

Model satisfaction

The survey also ranked 124 car models.

Car makers with the lowest satisfaction scores Daewoo 768 Renault 768 Kia 767 Citroen 766 Chrysler 766 MG Rover 756 Land Rover 755 Peugeot 746 Fiat 745 Alfa Romeo 734 Source: JD Power What Car? magazine survey (marks out of 1,000) MG Rover goes back on warranty promise

Japanese cars did well again, with five of the top ten most-satisfying cars to own being produced by Honda, Lexus and Toyota.

Five of the top 20 cars are built in the UK, including the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

"Many of the leading models, including some from Japanese brands, are built right here in the UK," What Car? editor Steve Fowler said.

"This shows that British factories are building some of the best cars."

But again there was more bad news for MG Rover. The TF sports car finished second bottom on the list.