BMW has performed the best in a new BVRLA OEM Relationship Survey, which rates the service leasing companies receive from manufacturers.
Twenty-six leasing companies, with a combined fleet of more than one million cars, scored 23 OEMs against a range of criteria: quality of the working relationship; vehicle purchasing process; products and services; in-life services; electric vehicles; and financial support
BMW achieved 14 ‘Best in Class’ scores, while VW came top in the headline category of ‘Working Relationship’ and six other areas, placing it second to BMW overall.
MG was the next most highly ranked manufacturer, coming top in four areas, including the best ranking for lead times.
There was good news for other cars coming out of China, with BYD ranked the top ‘Up and Coming OEM’, followed by MG and Omoda.
In the ‘Vehicle Purchasing’ category, Audi and Volkswagen were joint winners, scoring well for their vehicle logistics and handovers.
BMW came top in the ‘Products and Services’ section, closely followed by Audi and VW. Kia and Volvo also achieved high rankings in this area. ‘In Life Services’ saw BMW top the table again, coming first in five of the seven rankings. Volvo also scored consistently highly.
Tesla and Polestar had the highest overall scores for the provision of ‘Electric Vehicles’, which reflected their strong range of EV product. When it came to EV technical and driver support, however, BMW topped the poll.
At the other end of the scale, Peugeot was 23rd for ‘Working Relationship’ and ‘Vehicle Purchasing Process’.
It was a mixed bag for Mercedes-Benz, which moved to the agency sales model last year. It was joint third with VW for ‘In Life Services’ but outside the top 10 for ‘Working Relationship’ and ‘Vehicle Purchasing Process’.
“In the automotive world, there are few relationships as important or long-lasting as that between lease companies and OEMs. The pace of technological, regulatory and market change is relentless and having a huge impact on the entire supply chain. It is vital that we assess that impact and take every opportunity to highlight best practice where it is occurring. We would like to congratulate those OEMs who our members have recognised for delivering high quality products and services.”
The full results of the BVRLA OEM Relationship Survey, which was developed and delivered by research consultants Experteye, are available here.
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Sarah Tooze has been an automotive journalist for more than 15 years, specialising in the fleet and transport sectors. She has held senior positions at industry-leading B2B titles Fleet News and Smart Transport, and led campaigns championing motorists as consumer editor for online used car marketplace Heycar and motoring advice website HonestJohn.co.uk. In 2017 she won the Newspress Automotive Business Journalist award.
