NEW South Wales dealerships were a dominant force for Audi and Volvo last year with several top-performing retailers from the state emerging as category winners at each company’s respective ‘Dealer of the Year’ or related incentive program awards presentations held recently.

Audi Centre Sutherland in Sydney’s south was named Audi’s 2017 Major Metropolitan Dealer of the Year – edging out Audi Centre Sydney and Audi Alto Pennant Hills – while Audi Alto Central Coast in Gosford, north of Sydney, took out the Rural DOTY category ahead of Audi Centre Townsville in north-east Queensland and Audi Centre Shepparton in north-central Victoria.

Bucking the trend, Audi Indooroopilly in Brisbane won the German brand’s 2017 Metropolitan DOTY award. Audi Centre Springwood, also operating in the Queensland capital, and Audi Centre Wollongong, NSW, finished second and third respectively.

Both the Sutherland and Indooroopilly dealerships are operated by the Autosports Group.

Audi’s awards program has been running since 2007 and special recognition was paid to dealerships reaching significant milestones as partners with the brand – Audi Centre Gold Coast (20 years) and Audi Centre Sydney, Alto Artarmon, Alto Pennant Hills and Audi Centre Parramatta (all 10 years).

While Audi’s DOTY program brought some new dealerships to the fore, it was a case of déjà vu with Volvo’s annual ‘Awards of Excellence’ as Volvo Cars Sydney in Leichardt was named the Swedish prestige brand’s top dealership in Australia last year.

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This was the Sydney dealership’s second successive win, which includes the major metropolitan award, and its sister dealership in Parramatta was again runner up.

Both are also part of the Autosports Group.

In a further show of strength from Volvo’s NSW sales force, Penrith-based Annlyn Motors took out the metropolitan category and Allan Mackay Volvo from Moss Vale in the southern highlands made it back-to-back wins as the best rural dealership.

As with other retail incentive programs, Volvo’s ‘Excellence’ awards and Audi’s DOTY program are judged on various aspects of participating dealers’ business such as customer service satisfaction, sales, aftersales and market share.

By Terry Martin