Hot News: Daihatsu Named Top Brand in German


No, really. Toyota's small-car subsidiary Daihatsu jumped from a sixth-place finish last year to take first place in this year's J.D. Power and Associates' New-Vehicle Owner Satisfaction survey in Germany. Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo tied for second.
Making Daihatsu's win even more impressive is the fact that the brand sold just 13,726 units in Germany last year, while heavyweights like BMW and Audi sold more than 250,000 units each. BMW finished third followed by Audi and Toyota tied in fifth. On the opposite end of the list, Chevrolet finished 26th and Smart finished dead last in 27th.
The owner satisfaction survey follows 113 models from 27 brands sold in Germany and scores the vehicles based on the owner's impressions of the vehicle's performance, quality, ownership costs, and satisfaction with servicing and service centers. Daihatsu scored exceptionally well in service satisfaction and ownership costs and came away with a total score of 843 points out of a possible 1,000.In individual categories, Daihatsu took home another win with the Sirion, which was named the top small car. Toyota took home both the top city car title with the Aygo and top lower-medium car with the Corolla, while Mercedes-Benz walked away with the top luxury car win for the E-Class and the best sports car title with the CLK-Class. The Renault Laguna picked up the award for best upper-medium car while the Skoda Roomster won best MPV and the Nissan Qashqai took best SUV.

Thanks to: Motor Trend