The Honda Jazz was voted the most reliable car overall with a 96% satisfaction rating. Owners said the Jazz rarely let them down. Other Honda models also fared well in the vote on older cars and the Civic 2000-05 models, the Accord 1998-2005 models and the FR-V 2001-06 models were among the cars with good reliability reports in the medium, large and offroad classes.

But Honda's new Civic model got a disappointing 82% satisfaction rating with owners reporting problems with the fuel system, steering and suspension.

Which? car editor Richard Headlamp said Honda topped the reliability table in most mainstream categories. "Honda is setting the benchmark in car reliability and it is up to the other manufacturers to raise their standards." He added: "Several far eastern car makers are hot on Honda's heels but European manufacturers still have some catching up to do."

Honda is not in the top 10 sellers here, although the marque's overall reliability rating is 86%, just 1% ahead of the top seller, Toyota. Next are Daihatsu (a company in which Toyota has a big stake), Lexus, Mazda, Subaru and Suzuki, all of which scored 82%.

The survey shows the best cars in the medium range were the BMW 1 Series, Mazda 3 and VW Golf. The BMW 3 Series, Honda Accord, Lexus IS and Toyota Prius came out tops in the largecar category. Audi A6, Jaguar XJ and Lexus GS were voted best in the luxury car section.

Nissan Note and Renault Modus took the honours in the mini MPV section with Ford SMAX, Honda FR-V and Toyota Avensis Verso tops in the MPV category. The top vote in the sports-car section went to Mazda MX-5 and VW's Eos got the coupe vote.

Land Rover didn't do so well with 68% happy with reliability.

The old model Chevrolet Matiz, Chrysler Voyager, Fiat Punto pre-2006, Renault Megane pre2004 and Peugeot 106 pre-2003 did not score well.

Honda sales here have gone up by 11.2% in the first six months of the year and by 21% across Europe. Frank Kennedy, sales and marketing director at Universal Honda, distributors here, says Irish sales increase is ahead of the overall market growth with the Civic, Civic hybrid and CR-V doing particularly well. He said he expects the double-digit growth to continue over the coming years through an expansion of the range and the introduction of more high-tech products which an environmentally conscious public now demands.