Top Gear rates top cars

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Honda S2000

Honda features strongly in the latest Top Gear owner survey, with the S2000 roadster and the Honda Jazz taking the first and second positions overall in the popular British magazine's top 10 cars, as voted by owners.

It was the third year in a row that the high-performance VTEC-powered S2000 sports car came out tops in a review ranking cars for reliability, build quality, running costs and the driving experience.

The Honda Jazz, overall runner-up, was number one amongst the small cars in the UK's biggest owner satisfaction survey.

To add to TopGear's high praise for Honda, the purpose-built Honda Civic Type R - soon to be available in South Africa - was rated Best Hot Hatchback by the magazine's test panel in a seven-car shootout which included the world's best high-powered hatchback models.

Their evaluation included the opinions of the mysterious Stig, an experienced race driver, who pushed the contestants to their limits on the magazine's own test circuit. They describe the Civic's interior as "ground-breaking" and were impressed by Honda's legendary build quality, the 2,0-litre's i-VTEC engine technology, and short, snappy gearchange which "ties the car together nicely".

This year's TopGear survey comprised some 56 000 car owners in Britain and 152 models. A minimum of 50 verified responses are required for each model before the results are published.

Owners were asked to rate their satisfaction out of 100 made up from build quality (22%), craftsmanship (22%), the driving experience (19%), cost of ownership (17%), and service received (20%).

As a manufacturer, the TopGear's survey put Honda in the third position overall out of the 35 carmakers included in the owners' assessment. This rating remained unchanged from the last time the study was undertaken.

The top ten list in full:

1. Honda S2000
2. Honda Jazz

3. Skoda Octavia
4. Skoda Fabia
5. Lexus RX300
6. Lexus IS200/300
7. Skoda Superb
8. Fiat Panda
9. Mazda MX-5
10. Jaguar XK