AFTER an impressive set of March registration figures, Nissan cannot stop but impressing its owners.
The Japanese firm has just been voted the 11th best manufacturer in the Auto Express Driver Power Awards 2011.
The survey, in which owners rate their car’s performance, ride quality, handling, reliability, cost of ownership, the dealer they bought from, and their car insurance, was answered by more than 22,600 consumers.
Nissan finished the survey in 11th place and, while narrowly missing a place in top 10, 2011’s results showed a massive improvement on 2010.
Last year the Japanese firm finished 25th – the rise from 25th to 11th represents the greatest improvement of any manufacturer in 2011’s survey.
And it gets better too. The Qashqai is now fifth in the Top 100 cars (56th in 2009, 41st in 2010), and has also won the best compact MPV/MPV category. The British-built Note also finished strongly in 32nd (59th in 2010), while the last-generation Nissan Micra finished in 51st (the car was absent from the 2010 survey).
Auto Express’s team of experts anticipated Nissan’s excitement, commenting: ‘Champagne corks will be popping at Nissan’s Sunderland plant – the UK’s largest car builder has made the biggest improvement of any manufacturer in Driver Power 2011. It’s leapt an amazing 14 places and is now challenging for the top ten.’
Paul Willcox, managing director of Nissan Motor (GB), said: ‘We are delighted to have achieved such great results in Driver Power, a survey that means so much more because our rankings and ratings are determined by our customers. The Qashqai has been a huge success for Nissan and the UK manufacturing industry, with more than 900,000 produced at our Sunderland plant. It’s great to see that drivers rate it just as highly as we do.’