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Top 10 carmakers with the best dealerships
Non-luxury brands like Mini targeting dealership as key selling point
 | Cadillac posts a strong showing in the sales area because its sales force takes the time to assess customers and match them to the products that meet their needs and tastes. |
Cadillac / Cadillac |
In a service bay at Rasmussen Mini, a Portland, Ore., dealership, technician Brandon Vlaew’s legs dangle sideways out of a 2005 Mini Cooper as he wrestles with its dashboard assembly.
“This is something that the customer probably wouldn’t want to see,” he says, holding the dash top out at an awkward angle, wires hanging. In all, it’ll be about a two-hour job by the time everything’s back together — and free of charge to the customer — all for the sake of a dash rattle, Vlaew says. “But they’ll notice their rattle is gone.”
Actually, before even confirming that the rattle has been eradicated, the customer will probably notice that the car is sparkling clean outside and spot-detailed inside — part of the normal service experience at this Mini dealership.
“Even though that rattle is covered by the factory, we spend thousands of dollars a month covering things that aren’t covered by warranty” just to keep the customer happy, says Bob Wells, service manager at Rasmussen Mini.
When parent company BMW launched Mini in 2002, it shared facilities with existing BMW dealerships. But since then, Mini made a push for its own dedicated locations. Spokesman Andrew Cutler says that customer satisfaction really started hitting its stride after the brand’s dealership experience synchronized with the message that Mini was sending out in its advertising and its products.
“We really catered all aspects of the dealership experience to our target customers,” says Cutler. “And they’re a different kind of customer in that they’re very hands-on and technically tuned-in and want to know about their car.” He says that the brand now uses a single sales person through the entire sales process, and requires exclusive Mini service writers and service bays even when some of the facilities are still shared with BMW dealerships.
Some aspects of Mini’s dealership experience are luxury grade, despite the affordable price of the car. Stylish waiting rooms often have big-screen TVs with xBox gaming consoles, and loaners are now company-subsidized.
The new attention shows in J.D. Power & Associate’s annual satisfaction surveys. For 2006, Mini garnered J.D. Power Customer Service Index (CSI) scores that are the envy of many luxury brands, with a huge jump up to 10th place overall, even placing it ahead of BMW.
Our other dealership ranking includes only luxury brands, as opposed to this one, which includes all brands.
Mini isn’t the only non-luxury brand to have honed in on the dealership experience as a key selling point. GM’s Saturn has long differentiated itself at the dealership, and for years Saturn has been ranked alongside top luxury brands for satisfaction with the dealership experience, thanks to the brand’s no-haggle pricing policy, personalized customer service and top-notch facilities.
Other non-luxury brands with top satisfaction scores include Buick, with a robust dealership network that has fewer models to handle than in the past and an older demographic that’s typically less critical; and Mercury, which largely shares its dealer network with Lincoln, a luxury nameplate.
Mini and Saturn stand out because they set up their dealerships to meet or exceed customer expectations, says Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Vision’s automotive division. Customer service at the dealership level hasn’t always been the priority that it is today, he says, and it’s much harder to enforce new standards on a dealership body that’s already established.
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