Toyota is the most admired motor vehicle company in the world, and 28th most admired company in any industry in the world, this according to a survey by Fortune Magazine. What could be surprising is the No. 2 slot in the automotive category, which belongs to BMW, though they are the 18th most admired company overall. The survey covers 652 companies from 30 different countries, or the top 25 percent of last year's contestants, and the top 20 percent of those in the auto industry.

It takes into account nine attributes, including investment value and social responsibility. The survey was given to 4,000 business executives, directors and securities analysts. Toyota scored at the top in every attribute in the motor vehicles sector. This is not surprising as Toyota has been at the forefront of making cheap, reliable vehicles worldwide, and of course for spearheading the modern hybrid era with the Prius. For BMW to reach almost that level is astounding, though. Also among the top companies in the motor vehicles sector were Daimler, Hyundai, Honda, GM, Volkswagen and Nissan, but only Toyota and BMW were the car companies that made the top list of overall companies in the world.