Workers at Honda's South Marston manufacturing plant received a huge boost with the news that the award-winning Civic they build has received another accolade.

The Civic 1.4SE five-door has been voted Britain's most comfortable car for the second time in a survey by consumer magazine What Car?

The small hatchback tops a field of 40 contenders ranging in price from £7,295 to £53,950 in the magazine's January issue, on sale next week.

The car that came second was the Lexus LS430 and the Skoda Fabia 1.9Tdi Comfort came in third.

Spokesman for Honda Lawrence Pearce said: "We are naturally delighted with this award and that our new Jazz model, to be launched next Spring, was also rated joint fifth in the same survey.

"These results highlight Honda's policy of listening to its customers and feeding back information to the people who design the cars.

"With the new Civic, we deliberately set out to design the car from the inside out, putting the needs of the driver and passengers above every-thing else.

"It has enabled us to build a car that's not only more roomy than its competitors, but more comfortable too.

"In fact the car is now so well regarded that the only problem we now have is building enough of them.

"That's where Swindon comes in because we're confident that our associates building the Civic will be able to turn them out in sufficient numbers to meet demand from all over the world for this car."