The Best Car Brands and Online Auto Accessory Retailers in 2022

By Jack Dona · Last updated Friday, 13 January 2023 · 6 min read

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A family in a car. The mother is enthusiastically showing the kids their holiday destination on her phone and holding up her thumb.

Australia is a country of drivers. We drive to work, to see our friends, and even do the occasional road trip. So, it’s only natural that we Aussies seek out the best car brands and best online auto accessory retailers to help make our daily drives as smooth as freshly laid asphalt.

But choosing a new car, and finding an online auto shop that works for you, can be a real pain in the bumper. That’s why it’s helpful to hear from Australian car owners like you, to understand their experiences with the cars they drive and the online auto accessory retailers they shop with.

The Mozo People’s Choice Awards in 2022 asked over 3,800 Australians to evaluate their attitudes and opinions towards the brands they use across a range of products and services. The results highlight customer satisfaction and the best services and products, alongside a range of other qualities, which you can explore in full in the methodology report.

Unlike the Mozo Experts Choice Awards, the companies that won were decided entirely by the people, giving customers a platform to provide real feedback on their experiences.

This is the first Mozo People’s Choice Awards to feature car brands and online auto accessory retailers, which reveals insights into which brands customers are satisfied with and which they’d recommend to the most, along with more specific categories which you’ll find below.

The best car brands in 2022
The best online auto accessory retailers in 2022

The best car brands in 2022

The 2022 Mozo People’s Choice Awards for the best car brands asked customers to rate the cars they drive across eight categories, including outstanding customer satisfaction, excellent driving experience, interior comfort and design, build quality, reliability, safety features, ownership experience, and also found the most recommended car brands in 2022.

Out of the 49 car brands which surveyed Australians rated, here are the ones that stood out from the crowd.

Outstanding Customer Satisfaction

A woman smiles from driver's seat of her car. It's the kind of smile warm enough to melt the frost off a Winter's morning windshield..

How satisfied are you with your car brand overall? Do you look forward to driving it, or are you less than happy at the prospect of hopping behind the wheel?

The 2022 Mozo People’s Choice Awards sought to bring to light which car brands provided their drivers with a sense of outstanding satisfaction. The car brands which customers rated as being satisfied with included Isuzu, Kia, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota.

Excellent Driving Experience

A hand rests comfortably on a steering wheel.

When you buy a new car, you expect it to drive like a new car – especially if you’re upgrading from an old one.

For some, the driving experience is the number one thing they look for in a car. So, which car brands were rated the highest for handling?

When customers were asked to rate how well the handling of their vehicle met their expectations, they nominated Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Suzuki, and Toyota as the top scorers.

Interior Comfort & Design

A man smiling at his back seat passengers from the driver's seat of his car. The sun sets in the distance.

The controls in a car shouldn’t distract you from the road ahead, so ease of use is a big consideration to make when comparing car brands.

For the Interior Comfort & Design category, survey participants were asked to consider how easy it is to operate the vehicle’s controls for features like driving functions, air-conditioning, media and smartphone connection, and storage, alongside how comfortable the interior environment is for drivers and their passengers.

The car brands which customers rated the most comfortable and well-designed included Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, and Volkswagen.

Build Quality

Female quality control engineer inspects part of a vehicle in a manufacturing plant.

Most drivers don’t want to make more trips to the mechanic than they have to, so the quality of a car brand is an important aspect for many.

Customers were asked to rate how well they believe their car is built, if everything works as it should, and whether they believe the car was built to last.

The winners in the Build Quality category included Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, and Toyota.

Reliability

A young couple pack the boot of their car with camping gear.

There are few worse feelings than being on your way to something important, hopping in the car, and finding it won’t turn on.

The Reliability category of the Mozo People’s Choice Awards for Car Brands seeks to showcase customers’ experiences with the reliability of their cars. They were asked to rate if their vehicle works as it should every time and if it has no regular or major issues.

Among the car brands rated for reliability were Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota.

Safety Features

A toy teddy bear strapped-in with a seat belt.

The safety of a car often takes top priority for drivers, with consideration paid to a vehicle’s safety rating and in-built safety technology.

The winners of the Safety Features category were selected by customers based on how well they perceived their car’s safety features perform.

Customers chose to name Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Subaru as the safest car brands in their experience.

Ownership Experience

A male engineer checks the oil levels of a car during routine maintenance.

Have you ever had to deal with your car’s company for matters like warranties? Do you get access to benefits because of the car you drive?

The Ownership Experience category asked customers to rate the overarching experience of dealing with their car company, with due consideration to the ongoing benefits, customer support, warranties, communication, service plans, roadside assistance, and software updates for the onboard computer.

The car brands which came out on top for delivering a desirable ownership experience were Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, and Toyota.

Most Recommended car brands in 2022

Across all of the Mozo People’s Choice Awards categories, there were five car brands that were recommended by customers the most.

The most recommended car brands for 2022 were Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Subaru, and Toyota.

The best online auto accessory retailers in 2022

A father and young son shop online together in their living room.

The 2022 Mozo People’s Choice Awards for the best online auto accessory retailers asked customers to rate the auto shops they buy from across five categories, including overall satisfaction, the range of products available, prices, the online shopping experience, and delivery service, also bringing to light the most recommended online auto accessory retailer in 2022.

Out of the 106 online auto accessory retailers which People’s Choice voters rated, here are the ones that stood out from the crowd, as voted by Australia.