Dealers have expressed high satisfaction with the finance schemes offered by their manufacturers, according to the National Franchise Dealers Association (NFDA).
The ‘NFDA Summer Survey’ asked dealers to assess finance programmes, ranking them one to ten on competitiveness, reasonableness of finance penetration, and underwriting and customer service.
When asked about satisfaction, dealers returned an average of 7.2 points, with eight franchises scoring 8 points or higher, and Mercedes achieving the highest at 9.5 points.
Mercedes also scored the highest when dealers where asked ‘How satisfied are you with the reasonableness of the finance penetration and renewal targets set by your manufacturer?’
The German carmaker scored 9.2 points, and the average score was 6.9 points, a rise of 0.2 points from the results of the winter survey.
For the question rating reasonableness of underwriting stance and customer service, Lexus topped the table with 8.6 points. The average score from dealers was 7.2 points, unchanged from the winter survey.
Sue Robinson, director of the NFDA, said: “Low interest rates will make finance more affordable for consumers and offset possible increases in prices, particularly of certain imported vehicles due to sterling’s devaluation.
“Retail incentives and finance offers support consumers’ confidence and it is vital for the industry that dealers continue to be able to offer attractive deals.”
