Survey reveals how dealers rate manufacturer relationships

Mini and Kia were rated the best manufacturers by car dealers to work with in a biannual assessment conducted by the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA).

Asked ‘How would you rate your manufacturer overall on a scale of 1 to 10?’, the two brands both scored 9.23 to share top spot of this edition of the Dealer Attitude Survey (DAS), with Lexus (9.0) also scoring highly.

Jaguar (2.9), Alfa Romeo (4.0), and Land Rover (4.1) received the lowest scores. Jeep improved the most with a 3.8-point increase in rating from the last survey.

Biggest Overall Movers and Shakers

When dealers were asked to rate their manufacturer overall, 18 brands saw an improvement of their average score while 13 brand witnessed a decline.

Seven of the Stellantis Group brands featured in the largest top 10 gainers.

Manufacturers who increased their overall rating the most include DS (180%), Jeep (165.2%) and Vauxhall (145.8%) ranking twenty ninth, seventeenth and twenty first respectively.

Manufacturers who saw a decrease in their rating include Land Rover, down by 26.8%, MG, with a fall of 20.3% and Mazda, which recorded an 18.7% decline. They were ranked 13th, 14th and 18th, respectively.

Paul Philpott, president and CEO of Kia UK, said he was “thrilled” to once again be named as the number one brand in the latest NFDA survey, and for the third consecutive time.

“This result is a testament to the strength of our relationships with our dealer partners, with whom we work so closely. Importantly, we have listened and learned from one another, and our customers, to build Kia into the diverse brand it is today,” he added.

Federico Izzo, director for Mini UK and Ireland, said that the relationship with its retailers is central to the business success of the network and of the Mini brand in the UK.

“This makes the result of the latest NFDA survey especially pleasing, particularly at the start of a year when the Mini brand is going through a renaissance, with three all-new models launched onto the market and the transition to electric power well under way,” he added.

The Winter 2024 edition of the survey was carried out over a five-week period between the end of January and the start of March 2024, asking franchised dealers questions about the ongoing business relationship with their respective manufacturers.

The survey attracted 2,321 responses from 32 franchised networks, equating to a response rate of 63%.

Vehicle supply

Supply of new vehicles continued to show the largest increase in score with 27 out of 32 manufacturers showing gains since the previous edition of the survey.

This metric has increased consistently in recent surveys and is a good indicator that global supply chains are improving.

The average score in manufacturers' new vehicle supply in the Winter 2024 survey saw an increase to 6.4 from 5.5 (0.9 score increase) in the Summer 2023 edition, a change of 16.4%.

Nissan (8.4), Kia (8.1) and Mazda (7.8) received the highest scores.

Despite this, some manufacturers have also seen falls in dealer satisfaction with new vehicle supply. Jaguar (2.9), Audi (3.1), Seat and Volvo (both 4.3) received the lowest scores.

Sue Robinson, chief executive of NFDA, said: “The Winter 2024 NFDA Dealer Attitude Survey paints a clear picture highlighting both strides forward and hurdles to overcome for manufacturers in their relationships with their respective dealers.

“NFDA congratulates Kia and Mini on being joint winners of this edition of the survey. It is also notable that seven Stellantis Group brands have shown some improvement with many of these brands among the lowest scoring in previous editions of the survey.

“There are encouraging takeaways with 47 questions out of 56 seeing a general upward trend in average score. There are also areas the DAS has identified where there is still room for improvement, notably manufacturers addressing concerns highlighted by dealers regarding electric vehicles.”