The leading German motoring magazine Auto Bild has awarded Hyundai the top position in the Auto Bild Quality Report 2010. Beating all other manufacturers, including rival Toyota and renowned German brands such as BMW and Audi, Hyundai took the prestigious honour based on a comprehensive analysis of reliability, long-term quality and customer satisfaction.

Auto Bild’s annual list evaluates seven key criteria, each weighted equally, including feedback received from over 9,000 owners; manufacturer warranty; recall information; and data from Germany’s TUV report, which covers 7.5 million vehicle inspections.

One of the most respected industry quality surveys, the Auto Bild Quality Report award further demonstrates the gains Hyundai has made in consistently improving the quality of its products, services and customer support, a Hyundai company statement said.

The accolade follows other significant honours for Hyundai, coming after its popular i30 took first place in the Auto Express Driver Power customer satisfaction survey in the UK this year. The i30 was also recently named Britain’s most reliable medium-sized car by subscribers to the respected Which? consumer guide.

Allan Rushforth, vice president of Hyundai Motor Europe, said: “It is a great honour to win such a distinguished title, particularly in a market as competitive as Germany. Once again, Hyundai has triumphed over the brands usually considered to represent the quality benchmark.

“Quality remains a core priority for Hyundai. Under the ‘True Quality Matters’ banner, we have devised a business strategy that supports our goal of leadership in customer satisfaction in Europe by 2015. Innovative customer care programmes, such as Five Year Triple Care, bring further advantages to Hyundai drivers, and our ongoing commitment to quality means our vehicles will always be at the top of the class.”

Meanwhile, this month Hyundai’s i30 C-segment family car reaches a double milestone. Not only is the car now three years old, it has also just surpassed a quarter of a million European sales. The award-winning car, designed and built in Europe, has gone from strength to strength since it was launched on the continent in July 2007, and is still selling in record numbers.

Sales of the i30 have steadily increased each year since its launch in Europe, culminating in a record full-year total of 95,375 in 2009. This trend has continued during the first half of 2010, with the hatchback posting a 41 per cent increase over sales a year earlier – including a best-ever monthly performance in March of 15,273 units.

The winner of several European awards, including the 2008 Car of the Year in Spain, the i30 also reached 600,000 global sales this month. The car, which started off European life as an import from Korea, is now built at Hyundai’s first European plant, in Nošovice, Czech Republic. Since the plant opened in 2008, the company has sold over 200,000 European-built i30s.

Hyundai’s industry-leading Five Year Triple Care offer is now available on the new i20, new i30 and ix35. The package comprises a five-year, bumper-to-bumper, unlimited-mileage warranty; five years’ roadside assistance; and a five-year vehicle health-check plan.

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