Which nation has the best car brands? Algorithm ranks countries

Britain has an enviable number of iconic car brands: Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover, Lotus; McLaren and Mini to name a few – although we’re aware that not all of these are British owned these days.

But have you ever wondered where the UK would rank as a country in relation to the nations with the best overall car brands?

The answer is said to have been revealed by a study that used an algorithm to consolidate car ratings from the UK’s top car sites into one overall rating – and the Czech Republic came out on top.

Right in the middle: The UK ranked fifth out of 11 countries for the best car brands – see how each manufacturer rated below

Before we get to the heart of the research and findings, it’s important to note that brands are grouped by the countries they hail from – and not necessarily by the nationalities of their current parent companies.

For example, Skoda – like Bentley – is now under the banner of the German VW group, Jaguar Land Rover has an Indian parent company, Mini is now a BMW brand and MG is Chinese.

The research also doesn’t use the factory locations where cars are built, as some brands make their cars in other countries.

The analysis was conducted by consumer advice website The Car Expert, which compiled what is known as an “Expert Rating Index”.

These are the five countries with the best and worst brands, based on an analysis of new model reviews from 30 of the largest auto websites. Brands are grouped by their countries of origin, not the countries that represent their current ownership

Like Rotten Tomatoes for movies and TV shows, the Expert Rating Index is a car rating aggregator that combines ratings for new cars across 30 different platforms.

Over 340 new car models for sale in the UK as of 1 March 2022 were analyzed in the study and only brands with at least 10 ratings were included in the manufacturer results – therefore Bugatti, Koenigsegg, Morgan and Caterham not included.

Countries with the best and worst car brands

1. Czech Republic: 76.4%

2. Sweden: 74.1%

3. Germany: 73.5%

4. Spain: 72.2%

5. United Kingdom 71.5%

6. United States: 69.1%

7. Romania: 68.3%

8. South Korea: 67.6%

9. Italy: 67.5%

10. Japan: 66.8%

11. France: 65.9%

Source: The Car Expert Expert Rating Index

The Czech Republic, which scored an impressive average of 76 percent in the data-backed rankings, came out on top.

Great Britain was fifth, more details below.

However, the Czech result came from just one brand, Skoda, which scored high in the car reviews of various publications.

For example, the Enyaq iV electric SUV was the most powerful vehicle in its segment, while the Scala, its least powerful car, still achieved a satisfactory score in its class.

Although Skoda is owned by the VW Group, Skoda’s largest assembly line in its home country is in Mlada Boleslav, with a daily production of more than 1,300 vehicles.

Second place went to Sweden with 74 percent, with the country’s score being a combination of ratings from Polestar and Volvo.

Traditionally regarded by many as one of the top car producing countries in the world, automotive giant Germany took third place.

Despite high-ranking premium brands such as Porsche (82 percent), BMW (73 percent) and Audi (73 percent), Germany was affected by a few weaker models.

Most notably, Smart impacted Germany’s score as the weakest of all brands in the analysis, resulting in a score of 43 percent, well below that of Japanese brand Subaru (51 percent), which took second place.

The Czech Republic, which scored an impressive 76% in Skoda’s data-backed ranking alone, took the lead. Although Skoda is owned by the German VW Group, Skoda’s largest assembly line in its home country is in Mlada Boleslav (pictured).

The Skoda Enyaq iV electric SUV was the most powerful vehicle in its segment

What about the UK?

As a nation of car brands, we ranked fifth overall despite creating some of the highest quality vehicles in the world, including two of the highest rated cars overall, the McLaren 765 LT and the Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Brands such as Bentley, Land Rover and Jaguar boosted Britain’s overall score, with journalists giving particularly high marks to models such as the Continental GT, Defender and I-Pace.

Vauxhall – now French-owned – scored 62 per cent, while MG Motor averaged 53 per cent, with two of its models, the MG 3 and ZS, among the five worst cars after being criticized for their Euro NCAP safety ratings.

Britain was fifth overall in the order, with Vauxhall and MG pushing the manufacturer down – although technically neither are now British owned companies, the former being French and the latter Chinese

The extensive research placed France at the bottom of the ranking.

DS Automobiles had low scores on all five models, averaging 57 percent, while Renault and Citroën were also at the bottom of the rankings, mostly achieving average expert ratings in their fields.

France had the brand with the best car ratings – and only for one model.

Alpine topped the charts with a score of 88 percent, although that’s just an average score in reviews of the highly regarded A110 sports car.

Nevertheless, he managed to outperform legendary brands such as Ferrari and Rolls-Royce.

You can see each brand in the order of the aggregator’s analysis in the full table below.

French Alpine was the top placing marque overall, although the aggregated ratings were all for the impressive A110 sports car. It scored more points than Ferrari and Rolls-Royce

BEST AND WORST CAR BRANDS ACCORDING TO RATING AGGREGATOR

rank	automaker	country or origin	rating	reviews
1	alpine	France	88.3%	28
2	Ferrari	Italy	85.0%	78
3	Rolls-Royces	United Kingdom	82.7%	74
4	McLaren	United Kingdom	82.7%	54
5	Porsche	Germany	82.0%	252
6	Tesla	United States	81.3%	110
7	Aston-Martin	United Kingdom	78.1%	102
8th	Lamborghini	Italy	78.0%	57
9	Bentley	United Kingdom	77.3%	106
10	Skoda	Czech Republic	76.5%	241
11	Alfa Romeo	Italy	75.9%	97
12	Land Rover	United Kingdom	75.6%	223
13	Volvo	Sweden	74.1%	343
14	North Star	Sweden	74.1%	44
fifteen	Mazda	Japan	73.1%	215
16	Seat	Spain	73.0%	118
17	bmw	Germany	73.0%	682
18	Audi	Germany	72.6%	782
19	jaguar	United Kingdom	72.3%	181
20	Mercedes Benz	Germany	72.1%	517
21	Volkswagen	Germany	71.4%	448
22	peugeot	France	71.2%	221
23	Cupra	Spain	71.2%	86
24	kia	South Korea	70.2%	284
25	Honda	Japan	70.0%	181
26	Hyundai	South Korea	69.9%	293
27	Mini	United Kingdom	69.9%	158
28	ford	United States	69.1%	432
29	dacia	Romania	68.3%	58
30	Toyota	Japan	67.8%	270
31	Renault	France	65.2%	118
32	Citroën	France	65.1%	139
33	Lexus	Japan	64.7%	156
34	Nissan	Japan	63.5%	111
35	Opel	United Kingdom	62.0%	186
36	Suzuki	Japan	61.3%	121
37	maserati	Italy	58.8%	71
38	genesis	South Korea	58.3%	72
39	DS automobiles	France	57.3%	110
40	fiat	Italy	56.4%	125
41	Ssangyong	South Korea	54.7%	55
42	MG	United Kingdom	53.2%	95
43	jeep	United States	52.9%	68
44	Abarth	Italy	51.0%	44
45	Subaru	Japan	50.8%	47
46	Clever	Germany	43.2%	28
Source: The Car Expert Expert Rating Index

Commenting on the research, Stuart Masson, Editor-in-Chief at The Car Expert said: “Many will be surprised that Germany doesn’t top the charts, but also that the title belongs to the Czech Republic.

“Skoda has made tremendous strides over the years and its product range has been praised by automotive journalists and consumers alike.

“Overall, Skoda’s value for money and ability to deliver cars that outperform many more expensive models has been the recurring praise of journalists’ reviews across the brand.”

He added: “For a country with a strong presence in the UK market, expert ratings for French brands were surprisingly low.

“However, it was gratifying to see that two British models were at the top and proved that the UK knows how to design top class vehicles.”

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