The UK National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) has released the results of its comprehensive Dealer Attitude Survey for Winter 2015-16, and it shows that Mercedes-Benz Dealers continue to be the most satisfied.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Mercedes Dealers rated their likelihood of recommending their brand as a franchise option at 9.8, compared to the average across all brands of 6.6. The next most satisfied were Lexus Dealers with an average score of 9.2, followed by Suzuki on 9.0, Audi on 8.8 and Kia on 8.7.

The franchisees least likely to recommend their brand were Renault (4.2), Jaguar (4.5), Seat (4.5) and Peugeot (4.7) Dealers.

Perhaps the most startling result was the fall in satisfaction amongst Jaguar Dealers, just six months after the 2015 summer survey. Jaguar Dealers were particularly disappointed with their relationship with the manufacturer, their satisfaction rating with Jaguar response to communications falling from 6.0 to 3.8 and with Jaguar’s professionalism from 7.1 to 4.8.

In terms of satisfaction regarding their profit return, Mercedes Dealers again topped the list with an average score of 9.1/10. Land Rover Dealers scored 8.8, with Lexus and Suzuki Dealers next on 7.7.

Jaguar Dealers reported the lowest satisfaction regarding their profits, with a score of just 2.0. Next were Volkswagen and Seat Dealers on 3.1, with Skoda Dealers at 3.6.
The average across all brands was 5.4.

Jaguar Dealers were much more optimistic about their future profits, although their satisfaction level of 4.6 was still at the lower end of the scale, and below the average of 5.8. Once again, Mercedes topped the lot with a score of 9.1, ahead of Lexus (8.2) and Land Rover (8.0).

Dealer satisfaction with the required level of capital investment was only just on the positive side, with an average score of 5.4. This ranged from Jaguar Dealers at just 2.9 to Mercedes at 8.6.
The only category in which Mercedes Dealers did not top the rankings was to the question, “How satisfied are you that the volume target aspirations of your manufacturer are realistic?”.

Mercedes Dealers averaged 7.7/10 in response, behind Suzuki (8.1), Lexus (8.0) and Kia (7.8). It was well down on Mercedes Dealers’ previous result in the summer survey, of 8.6.
Overall, the average rating for this question was 4.9, with Renault (2.5), Fiat (2.8) and Vauxhall (3.1) Dealers the least satisfied.