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September 2025 - Automotive

Dealerships rank Kia as top car brand for fifth year running in latest nationwide survey: The winter edition of a biannual survey of car dealers across the UK has seen Kia maintain pole position, followed closely by Lexus, Toyota and Mini. Kia upheld the title of best overall brand with a score of 9.3 out of 10 and ranked within the top five best performing brands for 55 out of the 56 questions asked, narrowly missing out on a clean sweep by coming in 6th place for availability of parts.

Conducted by the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), the winter edition of the 2025 Dealer Attitude Survey examined the views of over 150 dealerships from across all 31 UK franchised networks. The results represent a mix of dealership sizes: ranging from large franchises with 20+ sites (giving 42% of responses), through to smaller sites with between 2-5 locations (20%), and independent operators (9%). The aim of this survey is to further explore the relationship between manufacturers and the franchises that are both supplied and supported, monitoring how these relationships changed over time.

Throughout the report, Kia topped the responses to 51% of all questions asked. The report details six distinct sections: Value of the franchise, Operations, Dealer/Manufacturer Relationships, Product and Marketing, Electric/Plug-in vehicles and Overall Rating. In the Electric/Plug-in vehicles section, Kia achieved the highest average rating in response to every question in the section, suggesting that they are a popular manufacturer of EVs.

Another strong performer was Lexus, who consistently appeared in the top 5 in 39 of 56 questions. Lexus also performed well in the categories where Kia, did not score so highly. In relation to the availability of parts, Lexus ranked first, with Kia down in 6th place.

Contrastingly, some of the worst performers were found to be Ford and DS, scoring 4.0 and 4.4 respectively in the overall average ratings section and when compared to Kia’s 9.3, they scored less than half of their score. Ford also scored lowest in the Zero Emissions Vehicle and Value and Pricing sections. This disparity highlights a significant gulf in perceived quality between the top-performing brands and those falling consistently behind.

High survey scores clearly demonstrate a meaningful impact on dealer relationships and profitability for both sides. Encouragingly, the Winter 2025 edition of the survey saw improved responses across all questions, making it the most representative snapshot of dealer sentiment to date.

Kia had a standout performance, not only for its high overall score but also for its exceptional engagement: 76% of its dealer network took part (142 out of 188 sites), well above the industry average of 61.3%. Whilst this level of participation is impressive, it does suggest that response rates may play a role in shaping overall outcomes and should be considered when interpreting the results.

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