It's official - Toyota offers the best customer service. Despite a difficult year for the carmaker, its quick and effective handling of a series of recalls seems to have paid off after it came top for its customer service in a list of ten of the biggest carmakers in the UK*, according to a poll on RoadTestReports.   

Voted for by visitors to the popular consumer car review website, Toyota steamed ahead taking 17 per cent** of the vote nudging ahead of key rival Volkswagen with 15 per cent.

As a major forum for collecting the experiences of car buyers, the website's visitors are quick to praise car manufacturers when they deliver on both their products and in their services.

Although the website is best known for its reviews of the cars themselves, good customer service is an important part of the overall car buying experience and likewise attracts comments and critique from the website's users.

Sadly though it's not all good news, despite being one of the top three carmakers in terms of sales figures, Vauxhall managed to come last in the poll taking just 5 per cent of the vote.

"Despite media criticism of Toyota, our poll proves that the company handled its recall crisis effectively and efficiently and has emerged relatively unscathed in the minds of the public. The perception of the brand appears to have been well-maintained and proves just how essential good customer service is to the overall performance of the company. Poor service can be the ruin of an otherwise good line-up of car models; it's the final and essential component to ensuring that the feedback from buyers on websites such as our own is positive," says RoadTestReports spokesperson, Faye Sunderland.  

"Good service can be something as simple as providing adequate phone cover or responding to a query in good time. Eventually, providing good service pays for itself in repeat customer and word of mouth recommendations," she adds. 

*Top ten defined by UK car sales for the year 2010 up to the end of May. 

RoadTestReports asked 519 website visitors; 'Which of the following carmakers do you think offers the best customer service?'  The full results were:

1. Toyota (17%)
2. Volkswagen (15%)
3. Honda (15%)
4. Mercedes-Benz (11%)
5. BMW (10%)
6. Audi (10%)
7. Ford (6%)
8. Citroen (6%)
9. Peugeot (5%)
10. Vauxhall (5%)