The 2016 Winter Dealer Attitude Survey has exposed a souring relationship between some dealers and car-makers, with the NFDA finding satisfaction at the lowest level for several years.
The survey showed dealerships with the happiest relationship with their manufacturer were Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Suzuki and Kia.
But the most friction between the sales and manufacturing businesses occurred with respondents from Jaguar, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Renault and Seat franchises.
Overall, the NFDA recorded its lowest score over the past eight surveys, suggesting a decline in amicable relations.
The intensity of the issues facing dealerships was reflected in the survey receiving one of the highest overall response rates ever seen, with participation from 39 per cent of all franchisees across 28 networks.
The survey had 1603 respondents from a participating dealer network of 4065 outlets.
Dealers were asked to respond to questions covering significant aspects of their business relationship with their manufacturer. From these responses, scores were produced on a simple 10-point scale, running from 1.0 – extremely dissatisfied – to 10, which is extremely satisfied.
NFDA director Sue Robinson said: “The relationship between car dealers and car manufacturers recorded an average score of 6.1 – 0.1 points lower than the summer 2015 survey.
“Of particular concern are the results for questions that involve new-car targets and pressure to register vehicles.
“Answers to these questions showed that even in an extremely strong UK car market, some manufacturers are still pushing registration growth at the expense of dealer margin.”
The survey shows a slight decline in dealer satisfaction with their manufacturers on the all-important question about the overall value of the franchise.
This score is down 0.1 points since the summer 2015 survey and down 0.4 points on the survey this time last year. Of the respondents, 17 franchises scored above the average and 11 below average.
Dealers returned an average score of 4.8 when asked how satisfied they were with their new-car targeting process.
Dealerships in the UK
The score was statistically the same as the last survey and the NFDA said it indicated that in general dealers were dissatisfied with the targeting process with their manufacturers.
Mercedes remained as the top-scoring franchise with a score of 8.0 – but was still down 0.6 on the summer survey – followed by Lexus, Kia and Suzuki. The lowest scores were recorded by Renault, Vauxhall, Fiat and Jaguar.
Profit and profitability ratings also saw a decline. The results suggest that dealers are less optimistic about future profit returns than they were previously.
When rating the profit return from representing their franchise, an average score of 5.4 was recorded. This score is down 0.2 points since the summer survey, and 0.6 points lower than last winter.
When asked about the future profitability of their business, the dealer average fell from 6.0 to 5.8.
When dealers were asked: “How satisfied are you that your manufacturer dealer standards are fair and reasonable?” the average score for the winter 2016 survey was 6.1, down 0.3 points from the summer survey and 0.4 points since last winter.
The NFDA said the results for this question have been in repeated decline since summer 2014.
“The trend is of concern, suggesting manufacturers are continually raising standards that are seen by dealers as uneconomic or unreasonable,” the association said.
On this question, Mercedes received the highest score at 9.1 – up 0.2 on the previous survey and signifying near complete satisfaction with standards.
At the bottom on this question was Volkswagen with the lowest score, down to 3.2 from the German brand’s summer survey score of 5.2.
“There are a number of franchises that appear to have scored above average for most questions, and appear to have maintained a strong relationship with their dealer networks,” Ms Robinson said.
“These include top-scoring brands Mercedes, Lexus and Suzuki that out-performed most brands in the all-important questions.”
By Neil Dowling
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