Toyota, Lexus, and Mercedes; followed by BMW and Seat. It’s the top 5 automotive manufacturers that have provided the best support to Italian dealers during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the appendix dedicated to the crisis in the DealerSTAT study unveiled by Quintegia during the first episode of Automotive Forum LIVE. The level of satisfaction expressed by dealers towards manufacturers during the Coronavirus emergency was generally sufficient, both in terms of the timeliness of countermeasures (3.21 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 21 brands passing out of 29) and their effectiveness, where the figure drops to 3.03. Toyota emerged as the best manufacturer both in terms of timeliness (4.52) and the effectiveness of countermeasures (4.25) in terms of financial support tools, economic management, stock value management, remote customer management, crisis-specific training, and local communication. Close behind in both cases is Toyota’s sister brand, Lexus, with BMW taking third place in terms of timeliness and Mercedes in terms of the effectiveness of countermeasures. In particular, the support for local communication and especially the value of used car stocks fell well below sufficiency (2.13), while above-average ratings were given for financial support (3.33), followed by remote customer management and crisis management training.
The panel interviewed by Quintegia (1085 questionnaires, 52% of Italian dealers) and presented during the first in a series of automotive-focused video appointments also investigated the sales network’s market predictions. According to dealers, the 2020 revenue drop in new car sales will be around -38%, while for used cars and after-sales, the decrease will be 27% and 18%, respectively, resulting in a total deficit for dealers compared to the previous year’s performance of over 14 billion euros. As for the recovery, it is mostly expected to begin in the medium to long term (from mid-2021), although 46% of large dealers (with revenues exceeding 150 million euros) believe that customer behavior will not return to pre-crisis levels.
For a public summary of the results, you can contact: sintesi@quintegia.it
