According to the new car owner quality survey, issued by Consumer Reports, Korean vehicles (Hyundai and Kia) now rank right up there with the Japanese automakers! And results of their 2008 car reliability survey reveal that Japanese and Korean brands are the one that build the most reliable cars.

Last week, Consumer Reports posted it’s annual Car Reliability Study that surveyed more than 1.4 million Consumer Reports subscribers, covering model years from 1999 to 2008 and ranked Kia and Hyundai, to the list of Top10 carmakers.

According to the survey, Hyundai ranked 8th and improved it’s position by 7 spots from last year. Kia also made a major improvement and came in 10th position, meaning the brand has moved up 12 spots from last year. For the first time, both Korean automakers hit the top 10 list of the annual survey.

Excluding Hyundai and Kia, the remaining spots in the top 10 were all taken by Japanese cars. Topping the list was the Scion, followed by Acura in second and Honda on third place. Toyota way 4th, while Lexus, the company’s luxury line, came in 5th. Nissan’s luxury Infiniti brand came in 6th, Subaru in 7th, Hyundai 8th, Mitsubishi 9th and Kia 10th.

American and European manufacturers ranked low. The best among them was Ford, which ranked 11th. Other Ford’s brands ( Lincoln, Mercury) ranked 15th and 17th, while most of GM brands rated below average. Buick was 18th, Chevrolet 24th, Pontiac 29th, Cadillac 31st.

The highest ranking brand among European products was the Mini at 13th place, while it’s parent company BMW came in 20th. Audi was 22nd, Volkswagen 25th, and Mercedes-Benz 27th, falling far short of their reputations.