The study is based on more than 17,000 owner evaluations of their vehicles and dealers covering 67 areas grouped in the four areas of vehicle appeal, vehicle quality and reliability, ownership costs and dealer service satisfaction.

Volvo ranked highest in vehicle owner satisfaction among manufacturers with a score of 841 and performed particularly well in the vehicle appeal measure. Following Volvo in the rankings is Mercedes-Benz (839), which also achieved high scores in the vehicle appeal measure. Rounding out the five highest-ranked brands are Mazda (831), which performed particularly well in the quality and reliability measure, MINI (827) and Honda (824).

At the segment level, Mercedes-Benz models received three awards for the C-Class (compact executive car); E-Class (executive luxury car); and M-Class (SUV). Mazda was presented with two awards, for the Mazda2 (small car) and Mazda3 (lower-medium car), which achieved the highest score of any model in the 2011 study. Also receiving segment-level awards are the Fiat 500 (city car); Ford S-MAX (MPV); and Honda Accord (upper-medium car).