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South Korean car giant Kia has topped a US car quality study, pushing out high-end car maker's which usually dominate the list.

The annual study by consultancy JD Power surveyed more than 80,000 car buyers in the United States and found that Kia gave its owners the least problems over the first 90 days of use.

German luxury marque Porsche came next, followed by Kia’s fellow South Korean manufacturer Hyundai. Japan's Toyota and Germany's BMW came next.

British-based car makers were among the worst in terms of quality, with Land Rover and Mini lurking around the foot of the table.

The survey looked at 33 car brands and found that 21 saw the perception of their build quality improve over the last 12 months.

There was also good news for the US car industry. For the first time in 30 years, American automakers collectively received better marks for quality than in any time over the last 30 years.

In recent years some car makers’ quality scores have been dragged down due to issues with equipment such as Bluetooth, voice recognition and touch screens. But despite the huge increase in the amount of technology featured in the average car today, quality scores have climbed.

Kia, when its production figures are combined with those of sister brand Hyundai Motor, is the world’s fifth largest car manufacturer.

Figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders from 2015 show that Kia sold 78,489 cars in the UK, equating to 2.98 per cent of the entire market. Kia's sales increased 1.2 per cent compared to the previous year.

Kia, whose slogan is The Power to Surprise, has astonished many in the automotive sector with its improvements in quality. Luxury rivals such as Porsche and BMW may well be somewhat disgruntled that a production car firm has usurped their own lofty standards of build quality.