Ref. 30940-23HONDA'S American customers have voted the Swindon plant the second best in Europe.

JD Power and Associates carry out a survey each year called an initial quality study of new car owners in the US, asking them to flag any problems or faults they find with their car.

This year, 51,000 drivers responded, and Honda's South Marston factory, which employs nearly 4,000 people, was ranked second out of more than 160 plants on this continent beaten only by Porsche's Stuttgart factory for customer satisfaction.

The result is due to the success of the Swindon-built CR-V sport utility vehicle.

JD Power's senior director for vehicle research Brian Walters said: "We've been doing initial quality studies for 18 years. It's a global metric for vehicle quality and virtually every manufacturer round the world uses this as a measure of quality and competition."

In total, 37 brands were ranked, from Hyundai and Kia to Mercedes.

The study asks questions about 135 potential problem areas from engine performance to transmission and whether the sound system works

Mr Walters said: "This is really quite an accomplishment.

"The automotive industry is built on continuous improvement if you're not improving and the rest of the competition is improving, you will lose ground.

"Swindon came fifth in the awards last year, but has still improved 27 per cent since then, which is faster than 90 per cent of other plants, and that's a great achievement."

Swindon is Honda's only car manufacturing plant in Europe.

UK Honda managing director Kazuto Iiyama said: "Today we export more than 45 per cent to North America.

"The CR-V model is extremely popular in the US.

"We are importing to the East Coast from this plant, and it's important that customers should not recognise any difference between Swin-don-built and Japanese-built cars, and analysis shows there is not.

"This demonstrates we can build high-quality products that satisfy the global customer.

"This is a fantastic tribute to the workforce here in Swindon."