Czech cars proven to be the best, according to new analysis

• Czech Republic revealed to be the country that produces the best cars
• The study, focussing on vehicles available in the UK, uses The Car Expert’s advanced Expert Rating Index to rank the countries that have the strongest car brand pedigree
• Despite its reputation as an automotive powerhouse, Germany comes in third
• Britain is fifth in the ranking, with Rolls-Royce and McLaren producing the two most highly rated vehicles, whilst France resides at the bottom
• For an in-depth breakdown of The Car Expert’s analysis, click here

29 March 2022: The Czech Republic produces the best cars, according to a detailed study of car brands conducted by The Car Expert.

The analysis, conducted by the UK’s most comprehensive automotive consumer advice site, The Car Expert, ranked countries from best to worst based on the cars and car brands that were originally created there.

The new study utilises The Car Expert’s unique, data-driven Expert Ranking Index and takes into account all cars currently available in the UK. The Expert Rating Index uses algorithms to accurately consolidate car reviews from 30 of the UK’s top automotive websites into a simple, easy to understand percentage score.

The Czech Republic, which scored an impressive 76% average in the data-driven rankings** – thanks to the high scoring all-rounder Škoda – was followed by Sweden in second place (74%).

Traditionally seen by many as among the best car-producing countries globally, automotive giant Germany came in third place. Despite its high-ranking, premium brands such as Porsche (82%), BMW (73%) and Audi (73%), Germany was impacted by a number of lower-performing models.

Most notably, Smart affected Germany’s score as the lowest performer of all brands within the analysis, resulting in a score of 43%, which is significantly below that of Japanese brand Subaru (51%) which was second from bottom.

Britain, known for creating some of the most upmarket vehicles in the world, came in fifth according to the Expert Rating Index. It is also home to the two most highly-rated cars on sale, the McLaren 765 LT and Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Brands such as Bentley, Land Rover and Jaguar bolstered Britain’s overall score, with journalists rating models such as the Continental GT, Defender and I-Pace particularly well. Vauxhall scored 62%, while MG averaged 53%, with two of its models, the MG 3 and ZS, among the bottom five cars after being critiqued for their Euro NCAP safety ratings.

The comprehensive research placed France at the foot of the leaderboard. DS Automobiles had low scores across all five models, averaging 57%, while Renault and Citroën were also towards the bottom of the rankings, mostly scoring average Expert Ratings across their ranges. However, both brands had a few notable stand-out models such as the Renault Clio and Citroën C5 Aircross.

In contrast to this, French brand Alpine topped the charts with a score of 88%, landing the company the title of best overall brand. However, this score was made possible by Alpine currently only having a single model on sale in the UK, the well regarded Alpine A110 sports car.

With just one brand of Czech origin on sale in the UK, Škoda’s entire range performed well under the critical eye of motoring journalists. The Enyaq iV was the best performing vehicle in its range , while the Scala, its lowest performing car, still earned a satisfactory score within its class.

Stuart Masson, Editorial Director at The Car Expert, said: “Many will be surprised to find that Germany has not topped the charts, but also that the title belongs to the Czech Republic. Škoda has made huge strides over the years and has seen its line-up praised consistently in the eyes of automotive journalists and consumers alike. Overall, Škoda’s value for money and ability to deliver cars that outperform many more expensive models was the recurring praise of journalists’ reviews across the brand.

“Our Expert Rating Index is unique, drawing on a vast number of reviews from respected automotive titles and using our proprietary algorithm to assimilate this data into a percentage rating – it is effectively a meta-analysis for vehicles.”

He continued, “For a country that has a strong presence within the UK market, the Expert Ratings for French brands were surprisingly low. However, it was pleasing to see two British models coming out on top, proving that the UK knows how to design first-class vehicles.”

For a more in-depth breakdown of The Car Expert’s analysis across the globe, click here.

ENDS

Methodology

Harnessing the unique Expert Rating Index, The Car Expert has compiled a comprehensive report on how UK motoring journalists rate cars from each country. As the car industry’s manufacturing facilities are spread across the globe, the brands were grouped together by their country of origin, rather than where the factories may be based.

Over 340 new car models that were on sale in the UK as of 1 March 2022 were analysed in the study. To give a fair Expert Rating, high volume models needed a minimum of ten automotive reviews to be included within the study, while low volume models required a minimum of six automotive reviews. Therefore, brands such as Bugatti, Koenigsegg, Morgan and Caterham were not included due to a lack of scored review data.

**A separate calculation to that of the Expert Rating for the individual models, the scores for each brand and country were weighted according to volume of reviews, rather than a simple average of each model’s rating, ensuring that outliers did not unduly influence the overall result.

The Car Expert

Founded in 2011, The Car Expert is the UK’s most comprehensive automotive consumer advice site. With an audience of over two million readers a year, The Car Expert provides independent and impartial advice on every aspect of buying, financing, owning, and selling new or used vehicles.

The Rotten Tomatoes equivalent for the automotive world, The Car Expert consolidates reviews from 30 of the UK’s top automotive websites to create the Expert Rating Index. Bringing together science and data analysis, the index calculates a weighted average to give an aggregated score – Expert Rating – that is comparable across different brands and models.

The Expert Rating Index factors in the age of each review, so that newer reviews carry more weight than older reviews. It also breaks down the complex web of different scoring systems that various websites use in their reviews.

The Car Expert has logged more than 11,000 reviews covering more than 400 different cars and 50 car manufacturers, with its Expert Rating Index now trusted as the gold standard for rating and ranking new cars in the UK.

For media enquiries, please contact Performance Communications:

Melissa Lodge: [email protected]
Daniel Aron: [email protected]