What's the news?
Auto Express magazine has conducted its annual Driver Power survey for 2014, in which more than 50,000 respondents took part, and there's some excellent news for one manufacturer.
The survey asks drivers to rate their cars, including older models up to a certain age, on a variety of factors across multiple disciplines, such as reliability, running costs and ease of driving, in order to get a picture of what are the top 150 cars to own.
And on the overall rating, the best car of 2014 was a Skoda, the second best car of 2014 was a Skoda, and the third best car of 2014 was... that's right, no prizes for guessing, a Skoda.
The first generation Yeti was the ultimate champ, with an aggregate percentage score across the disciplines of 92.78. It was closely followed by its Citigo cousin, with 92.62 per cent satisfaction, and the seemingly aptly-named second-gen Superb with 91.68 per cent. The highest non-Czech contender was BMW's 5 Series, fourth with 91.45, while Vauxhall's Antara came in 150th with 82.88 per cent.
Some old motoring staples were re-confirmed by the findings: the Japanese topped the reliability table (the current, soon-to-be-replaced Honda Jazz beat the last two generations of Toyota Prius to top spot); Volvos really do have the comfiest seats, as seven of the top 15 cars in this category came from the Swedes; Land Rovers ride well (Defender excepted); and two Audis were at the top of the build quality chart, the Q5 taking the honours from the current A3.
We won't give you a full run-down of every category, as we'd be here all day, but some stand-out results were: the type 3B/3BG Volkswagen Passat languishing in the doldrums of the reliability stakes, along with (worryingly) a lot of Land Rover products; the Volvo V70 getting a staggering 99.44 per cent rating in the practicality stakes; and, oddest of all, the MG 6 recording some astonishing satisfaction figures throughout, leading it to a hugely commendable sixth-place finish overall. Most incredibly, it topped the road handling category with a brilliant 98.11 per cent, beating no less a car than the 997 iteration of the Porsche 911 into second place.
Anything else?
You can find out where your car came and look through the full results of all 150 cars by category by going to the Auto Express website.
Matt Robinson - 28 Apr 2014