2014 Castrol Professional Car Servicing & Repair Trend Tracker

Honda has achieved the highest servicing customer retention levels of any dealer network in the UK.

A total of 38% of all Honda owners surveyed for the 2014 Castrol Professional Car Servicing & Repair Trend Tracker report took their car back to a Honda franchised dealer for its most recent routine service.

This score is lower than last year, when Honda recorded 40.3% servicing retention for cars of all ages.

Mercedes-Benz improved its performance this time around, up 4.5% percentage points to 37.8%, rising from fourth to second place, and overtaking Audi (35.3%) and BMW (32.3%).

Toyota completed the top five, retaining 29% of customers for routine servicing. The average for owners of cars of all makes was 24.8%.

At the bottom of the table were dealer networks for Renault (16.0%), Peugeot (19.4%) and Ford (19.7%).

For cars less than four years old, Honda still captured a high proportion of servicing work (67.7%), although it’s Mercedes-Benz that takes the lead, capturing 71.4%. The average in the franchised sector for service retention of cars within this age range is 56.5%.

Trend Tracker analyst Chris Oakham said: “The type of customer plays a role in overall servicing retention. Among others, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota tend to attract a relatively mature and conservative customer base, which may be more likely to return to a franchised dealership for routine servicing than younger, more cost-conscious owners of other brands.”

The latest findings from the report also highlight a number of other franchised dealer networks successfully retaining high levels of servicing custom, though they are excluded from the final Trend Tracker rankings due to low sample sizes in relation to higher-volume manufacturers.

Kia, whose sample size has grown rapidly in recent years, retained 41.6% of all servicing custom, up from 35.3% recorded in last year’s report. This result is believed to be aided by its industry-leading seven-year warranty.

Mini’s ‘tlc’ service plan continues to help the brand capture a strong 38.6% of servicing work, while Suzuki successfully captures the highest proportion of routine servicing work among cars over 10 years old (15.6%, versus an all-marques average of 4.7%).

Franchised dealer for make percentage servicing retention (whole year 2013)