Servicing: car brands with the most satisfied drivers

From value for money to quality of work, these are the car brands with the most satisfied drivers when it comes to getting a service.

Our experiences when taking our motor for an essential full car service can vary significantly, based on how we are treated by the staff and how reasonable the charges are.

WhatCar have dived into the issue by surveying motorists across the nation to get a better idea of what drivers of different types of car can expect when heading to a franchised or independent garage for their service.

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Crunching the numbers

More than 18,000 motorists took part in the study and were asked to rate their experience based on three main factors: the politeness of staff, the quality of the work carried out, and value for money.

For each of these, drivers were asked to score the garage as very good, average, bad or very bad.

The WhatCar team have used these ratings to put together scores for each of the main car brands operating in the UK to create a ‘satisfaction index.’

Of course, not all drivers stick to franchised garages as there may be savings to be found by heading to an independent one.

To take that into account, drivers were also quizzed on their experiences at non-franchised service agents, with ratings recorded again based on car brand.

Let’s start with the franchised dealerships.

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The best franchised garages

A car garage repair shop. Man working on a Lexus (Image; Shutterstock)

First, let’s take a look at the garages that deliver the best experience for drivers.

Brand	Satisfaction rating
Lexus	94.1%
Subaru	91.8%
Honda	91.3%
Suzuki	90.6%
Volvo	89.7%
Toyota	89.7%
Skoda	89.2%
Kia	89.1%
Peugeot	88.9%
Hyundai	88.2%

Lexus clearly sets the pace here, with a massive 94% rating from owners of cars up to 20 years old.

It’s worth noting the brand was not ranked as anything less than good in any of the categories ‒ in fact the vast majority gave it a score of ‘very good’ for staff attitude and quality of work.

Honda, Subaru and Suzuki all stood out in these two categories too according to WhatCar.

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The worst franchised garages

Man working on a car in a garage (Image: Shutterstock)

Here’s how things look at the other end of the scale, with the 10 worst performers.

Brand	Satisfaction rating
Mazda	85.6%
BMW	85.4%
Vauxhall	85.4%
Mitsubishi	85.2%
Nissan	84.5%
Porsche	84.1%
Renault	83.7%
Mercedes-Benz	83.5%
Audi	83.3%
Land Rover	82.7%

According to the those surveyed, Audi, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz performed particularly poorly in delivering value for money. That’s notable when you consider they are premium brands.

Renault completed the bottom four, having scored poorly on both workmanship and staff attitude.

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Going independent

It’s worth highlighting that overall scores were far higher from independent garages than franchised ones.

In fact, no brand finished with an average score of less than 90%, demonstrating that no matter what brand of car you have, there’s a better than average chance that you’ll leave an independent garage feeling happy with the service received.

Here’s how the top 10 looks:

Brand	Satisfaction rating
Suzuki	95.8%
Lexus	95%
Citroen	93.9%
Honda	93.8%
Jaguar	93.6%
Mercedes-Benz	93.5%
Hyundai	93.2%
Volkswagen	93.1%
Mazda	93%
Audi	92.8%
Ford	92.8%

The satisfaction rating from Suzuki owners is seriously impressive, but the scores across the board are very good.

It’s also notable that owners of more luxury cars, who were so disappointed with the franchised garages, seem to have a much better time with the independents.

Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Mazda, which were all towards the bottom of the satisfaction rankings for franchised garages, are among the top when it comes to the independent garages.

And here are the worst performers:

Brand	Satisfaction rating
Alfa Romeo	92.3%
Porsche	91.9%
Land Rover	91.8%
Nissan	91.7%
Peugeot	91.6%
BMW	91.5%
Seat	91.5%
Vauxhall	91.2%
Renault	91.1%
Fiat	90.7%

Renault is once again towards the bottom of the table, as are Land Rover, Nissan and BMW.

Clearly, it’s worth doing your research on the standard of your local independent garages before heading straight to a franchised dealership to get your service done.

It may be that you enjoy a far higher standard of work, as well as saving some money in the process.

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