The National Motorcycle Dealers Association (NMDA) announced the results of the latest NMDA Spring 2018 Dealer Attitude Survey on Monday 14 May 2018.
The survey received a response rate of 28%. Participants in this survey were made up of 90% of independently owned franchise dealers, and 10% privately owned groups. 53% were single brand dealer’s whilst the remainder of 47% were multi-franchised.
The results show that the all dealer average, when asked about the overall value of the franchise, remained static at 6.3 since the last survey in Autumn 2017.
- Harley Davidson, KTM and Kawasaki were recorded as the top 3 franchises.
- The least valued franchises by respondents were Piaggio Group and Suzuki
The dealer/manufacturer relationship score average improved by 0.2 since the last survey in Autumn 2017.
- The partnership dealers have with their manufacturer scored an all dealer average of 3.5
- Harley Davidson was the top scoring dealer with a score of 4.4, however still down 0.4 points from last year.
Dealer profit declined by 0.1 points and future profitability remained static in this survey from Autumn 2017.
- When rating the profit return by representing their franchise, the all dealer average declined to 2.9
- Harley Davidson, KTM and Kawasaki were recorded as the top 3 franchises.
- When asked about the future profitability of their business the all dealer average remained at 3.1
- Again, Harley Davidson, KTM and Kawasaki were recorded as the top 3 franchises.
Overall this year’s Spring survey suggests that dealers are fairly satisfied with the business relationship they have with their manufacturer. Harley Davidson scored particularity well across most questions, and it was interesting to see that although Piaggio Group’s score increased significantly across the majority of questions, they were still rated as the least valued motorcycle franchise overall.
Dealers are on average most satisfied with the image of the brands they represent and products they sell. This suggests that dealers are brand patriotic and confident in how the consumer views their manufacturer.
With the declines in scores for certain key questions, there is still scope with certain manufacturers to develop their relationships with their dealer networks as some still fall well below average in many areas of the survey.