Despite concerns related to challenges in the buyback policy for unsold spare parts inventory and ensuring dealership viability, the four-wheeler dealers were the most satisfied within the auto retailer community, according to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations’ dealer satisfaction survey (DSS) 2024. Dealers of JSW MG Motor were the most satisfied, while those of Hyundai Motor India, which was the topper last year, slipped to the third place.
JSW MG Motors scored 866 points in the survey, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra (837) and Hyundai Motors (834).
In the two-wheeler segment, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India has continued its 4-year streak to maintain the top position in the segment with 805 points this year.
In commercial vehicles, Ashok Leyland bagged the number one spot with 817 points, and Bharat Benz made its debut in the top three with 784 index points. Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicle, which was the topper in the segment last year, dropped to third place.
Over 1,500 dealer principals, representing nearly 4,500 outlets across India, contributed to the DSS study this year. Dealer satisfaction was measured on a 1000-point scale, combining ratings of product importance and satisfaction. The study analyzed factors such as policy on sales, products, warranty, unsold inventory and dealership viability. Luxury four-wheeler and three-wheeler segments were not included in the study, citing insufficient samples.
“The 2024 findings highlight critical areas for improvement, particularly in the support for buy-back policies on unsold spare parts and the implementation of more dealer-friendly inventory management norms for new vehicles—both of which are essential to ensuring the financial stability of dealerships. Despite these challenges, dealers have expressed strong satisfaction with the reliability and diversity of OEM products, which continue to serve as key strengths in the Dealer-OEM relationship,” FADA President, C S Vigneshwar said.
The dealer satisfaction study comes at a time when dealers have been continuously raising concerns related to the rising inventory of unsold cars. Based on the inputs from FADA officials, Autocar Professional recently reported that record inventories are expected to lead to an incremental expense of up to Rs 1,000 crore for auto dealers during the festival season this year.
The PV inventory level has risen to around 75 days of sales from 67 in June. Typically, dealers prefer to keep the stocks in the 40-50-day range during the festival season.
FADA noted that after-sales-related areas assume the highest importance among all factors, followed by sales. However, despite being the most improved factor over the past two years, business and viability remain the lowest-scoring factor while product scores the highest.
The association expects better support in clearing the above-60-days-aging vehicle stock and unsold vehicle stock and higher warranty labor rates for better gross margin in workshops.
Highlighting the concerns in the commercial vehicle segment, dealers expressed a strong desire to be involved in OEM policymaking, and improving vehicle sales margins and overall profitability. In the two-wheeler segment, they marked OEMs as being unsupportive of dead stock parts, and resistant toward dealers’ policy-making inputs.
The results of the study were derived by evaluating vehicles on factors like sales, after-sales, OEM products, buyback inventory, business and viability. Among these factors, business and viability remain areas of concern.