AWARDS
Kia reclaims crown as top manufacturer for dealers This year’s Car Dealer Power ceremony was a digital event because of the pandemic, with James Baggott and James Batchelor revealing the results of our wide-ranging and influential industry survey.
K
ia has been named the best manufacturer to represent in the Car Dealer Power Awards 2020. The survey of thousands of dealers rated car manufacturers in 13 categories, with Kia scoring an incredible 94.8 per cent overall. Speaking exclusively to Car Dealer Magazine, president and CEO of Kia Motors UK Paul Philpott said he was delighted with the win. Happy Kia dealers marked the brand at 98 per cent for its warranty, while its marketing, brand awareness and new car supply all scored 96 per cent. The South Korean firm narrowly beat Lexus, which came second with a score of 94.1 per cent, while Volvo – up six places on last year – was third with 89.9 per cent. At the bottom of the table was MG, scoring a dreadful 42.6 per cent. Philpott said: ‘I think with awards like this in the good times it is easy to impress your network but in the tough times you really find out who your friends are. ‘What we have done through the past six months is stay really close to our partners and recognised that cash flow and business through-put over the last few months to get balance sheets and P&Ls back up to where they should be is really important. ‘That has meant continuing to invest in marketing, ensuring we have the right supply in place to sell, and it means continuing to communicate with all levels of our dealer network. ‘Of course, warranty is going to be strong – we’re blessed with the best.’ Last year, Kia had to hand the crown to Mazda, but with solid scores across the board it took first once again in 2020. The manufacturer’s used car scheme came in for particular praise from the network with a top score of 95 noticeably ahead of rivals. The full list of car manufacturers and where they placed can be seen over the page. Scores for each of the categories are used to create an average overall score to one decimal point. No categories are weighted as more important than others. A dedicated post in the Car Dealer Power Awards section of our website also features interactive graphics for each manufacturer. This year there are a couple of ties in the list and several manufacturers aren’t included as the minimum number of 10 responses from dealers wasn’t achieved.
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Land Rover Defender won Car of the Year, with the Porsche Taycan and Ford Puma being highly commended
James Baggott and James Batchelor present the digital Car Dealer Power event
GardX head of sales Amanda Massey told of the team’s pride at winning their award
Click here to see the full coverage and all videos from the Car Dealer Power Awards 2020
The winners MANUFACTURER Manufacturer of the Year
Kia
Car of the Year
Land Rover Defender
SUPPLIERS Cleaning Product of the Year
Paint Protection Provider of the Year
Recruitment Agency of the Year
Auction House of the Year
Trade-to-Trade Remarketer of the Year
Trade Insurance Provider of the Year
Used Car Valuations Provider of the Year
Online Advertiser for New Cars
Consumer Lead Generation Site of the Year
Online Advertiser for Used Cars
Dealer Management System of the Year
Finance Provider of the Year (Sub-Prime)
Autoglym
Perfect Placement
Trade to Trade Underwriting Auto Trader carwow
Pinewood
Website Provider for Independent Dealers
67 Degrees
Website Provider for Franchised Dealers
GForces
Provenance Check Provider of the Year
GardX
Manheim
Gallagher heycar
Auto Trader
First Response Finance
Finance Provider of the Year (Prime)
Close Brothers Motor Finance Video Provider of the Year
GardX AD-vantage B2See Extra Mile Award
Cap HPI
What Car? New Car Buying
Warranty Provider of the Year
Product Innovation of the Year
Warrantywise
Facebook Marketplace
Highly commended Warrantywise chief executive Lawrence Whittaker said it felt wonderful to win
MANUFACTURER Car of the Year
Ford Puma & Porsche Taycan
SUPPLIERS Dealer Management System of the Year
Click Dealer
Website Provider for Independent Dealers
Recruitment Agency of the Year
Website Provider for Franchised Dealers
Warranty Provider of the Year
Autoweb Design & Click Dealer
The two Jameses unveil the winner of the Car of the Year award
Autoweb Design
WeRecruit Auto
The WMS Group
AWARDS
MANUFACTURERS THE FACTS AND FIGURES IN DETAIL OF THEIR PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR
Car Dealer also handed out awards in the coveted supplier categories in our special digital awards ceremony. This is the first time Car Dealer has held the Power Awards digitally and all the winners spoke to us about their triumph. You can watch the individual winners’ interviews in the dedicated section on our website here. In our special awards video we run down the full winners and losers in the car manufacturer section in detail. The best suppliers to represent are also showcased in the video, plus there’s a special section on the Car Dealer Power Car of the Year. The Land Rover Defender took the title this year – voted for by car dealers up and down the country – narrowly beating the Ford Puma and Porsche Taycan, both of which were highly commended. ‘This award tells us this is a very special car,’ Jaguar Land Rover UK managing director Rawdon Glover told us. ‘Internally, we’ve been very excited about the car. ‘An awful lot of work has gone into it with making it respect its history but not being harnessed by it. Seeing it recognised is really special.’ Glover added: ‘It’s been a long time coming with the Defender being out of our portfolio for some years. Strategically, it’s an important third pillar for the Land Rover brand, but for retailers it’s an incremental nameplate. It’s new business and it’s in high demand, but that aside it’s given the whole network and all Land Rover staff a real lift at a really critical time.’ Delve into the Car Dealer Power results in detail in our dedicated section here.
Position 2020
Manufacturer
Postion change to 2019
Overall score
1
Kia
+1
94.8
2
Lexus
–
94.1
3
Volvo
+6
89.9
4
Mercedes-Benz
+6
89.8
5
Mazda
-5
88.1
6
Mini
–
83.0
7
Audi
+14
81.3
8
Seat
+8
81.3
9
Toyota
-2
80.2
10
Suzuki
-1
74.4
11
BMW
-6
74.2
12
Ford
–
70.5
13
Volkswagen
-7
70.2
14
Nissan
+11
69.3
15
Peugeot
+8
69.3
16
Dacia
–
69.2
17
Skoda
+3
67.6
18
Hyundai
-14
65.7
19
Renault
+8
63.8
20
Jeep
–
61.2
21
Honda
-5
60.6
22
Land Rover
-2
60.5
23
Jaguar
-9
58.1
24
Fiat
+3
56.0
25
Citroen
+6
54.3
26
Vauxhall
-1
52.0
27
Mitsubishi
-2
51.1
28
MG
-9
42.6
USED CAR SUPPLY/SCHEME
FORWARD PLANNING
FINANCE OFFERS
WARRANTY
Click here to see the coverage of this year’s awards AFTERSALES
MARKETING
BRAND AWARENESS
ACCESSIBLE
ONLINE OFFERING
NEW CAR SUPPLY
REQUIREMENTS
BONUS
ROI