FRANCHISED dealers will have to provide their customers with the same levels of service and convenience offered by supermarkets, telephone banking, home delivery and internet shopping if they wish to survive. A new report from accountancy firm KPMG warns that these sophisticated service standards are far more pressing concerns than Block Exemption or the advent of the Euro which are occupying so much of the motor industry's time.

Quite simply, dealers who react the quickest will win, declares 'Europe on the Move - the KPMG review of automotive retail and manufacturing'. It predicts that the winners in the fierce battle for new car sales will be those manufacturers and dealers which recognise that the internet and single European currency are not just technical issues, but represent fundamental changes in the way customers will buy cars.

'Car buyers will compare prices in different countries across Europe and want to use their VISA cards to buy where vehicles are cheapest,' says the report. This applies equally to fleets as it does to retail customers, and the growing ease with which fleet purchasers can surf the web for new car deals and finance arrangements will open up the market to suppliers prepared to adopt new technology.