20 March 2023

Overall relationships between manufacturers and retailers have remained stable over the past six months, according to the latest NFDA Dealer Attitude Survey. However, retailers operating Stellantis and VW Group franchises have used the survey to hit back at changes currently being imposed by their OEM partners.

All eight of the Stellantis brands were in the bottom 10 places. They were joined by Jaguar (second last) and Seat (8^th from last).

Stellantis, which is going through significant network changes, saw an average score drop of 0.7 with Peugeot recording the largest fall of 2.8. Citroen, the lowest placed brand, scored 2.7 out of 10.

Commenting on Stellantis’s poor performance after the last survey and on the network changes including significant cuts, UK managing director Paul Willcox said he accepted the manufacturer need to improve and that this would be an ongoing evolution.

Lee Titchner, network development director, added the main driver for the changes was to build trust between the manufacturer and the retailer and between the retailer and the customer.

VW Group, which is introducing new agency retailer agreements, saw four of its five brands score lower than the previous survey with an average drop of 0.8. Only Skoda saw an increase in its score.

At the top of the table Kia and Lexus took first and second place respectively for the all-important question ‘How to do you rate your manufacturer overall?’, reversing the order of six months ago. Completing the top five places were Mini, Mercedes and BMW.

Subaru was the fastest riser with a jump of 2.0 and Hyundai was the second fastest with a hike of 1.7 and sees the brand how firmly in the upper half of the survey after several poor results.

The average for all brands remained at 6.5 out of 10, the same score as the previous three surveys.

Commenting on the results Sue Robinson,  NFDA director, said: “The Dealer Attitude Survey has always been a primary benchmark report for the industry, offering a key indication of the health of business relationships between franchised dealers and their respective manufacturers. It is therefore extremely encouraging to see a record response rate of 70%, highlighting the importance that the UK dealer network still places on the survey, particularly entering times of turbulence and uncertainty.

“Franchised dealers are particularly pleased in areas such as used car margins, manufacturer training and with the range of electric vehicles on offer, in a bid to diversify and improve their alternative fuel product in line with the electrification of the automotive sector.”

For in depth analysis of the NFDA survey, see the April issue of Auto Retail Bulletin.

Tags: Dealer Attitude Survey, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, NFDA, Stellantis, VW Group