The BMW brand led the pack in the annual U.S. automobile quality survey this year, done by San Diego-based Strategic Vision.  Other luxury brands, such as Hummer, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Infiniti, Lexus, Land Rover, Cadillac, Lincoln and Volkswagen also landed at the top of the list.

Even though the luxury brands ranked at the top, total quality dropped for the first time in four years, according to the survey.

USA Today and the AP report that Volkswagen, which includes Audi, led all corporations with a total quality index score of 892 out of 1,000 possible points.  General Motors came in second at 867, followed by Ford and Honda, both tying for third place at 862.  Toyota finished fifth, at the industry average of 860.

VW, GM and Ford were the only corporations that showed improvement in the survey.

Strategic Vision’s survey questions centered on reliability, styling, interior and exterior design, vehicle characteristics, dealership excellence and overall perception of initial quality, reports USA Today.

Honda received the lowest percentage of people who reported problems with their vehicles at 19 percent, followed closely by Ford at 20 percent and Toyota at 21 percent.  Nissan and BMW tied at 24 percent.

Strategic Vision said it developed the rankings from surveys taken of 20,655 people who bought new cars in September, October and November of last year.  Vehicle owners who took the survey had to own the car for a minimum of two to three months.  About 200,000 surveys were mailed out, with a margin of error of plus or minus three scale points.