Once the butt of many a car joke, Skoda is now one of the highest recommended car brands amongst their own customers according influential pollster YouGov.

The Czech car brand was often tarred with the same brush as other Eastern European brands such as Lada and Yugo, with a reputation for low quality. But it seems that the Skoda brand in the UK today has shaken off that image with an impressive 83% based on YouGov’s Recommend scores, which is taken from the percentage of the brand’s customers who would recommend it to a friend or a colleague.

Skoda came out one percentage point ahead of Volvo, with Volvo, Lexus, Honda, Audi and Kia all rating in the low 80 per cent area.

Julian Tooke, global director of product integration at YouGov, said: “Although Škoda comes first out of all of the brands in the Car Brands sector, all ranked brands had high recommend rates so even small increases or decreases could change who comes first next year.

“YouGov has been assessing consumer recommendation of brands for 20 years and we currently measure it in more than 40 markets.

“We understand the importance of recommendation as brand health and consumer satisfaction metrics but also as a powerful communications channel.

“While Recommend scores allow brands to accurately gauge what their own customers think of them, YouGov Recommend+ now allows brands to unlock this data and make it actionable.”

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