Lexus has emerged as the top franchise in the UK for retailers in the latest Dealer Attitude Survey from the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA).
The Japanese brand edged out Kia by a margin of just 0.1 to end their streak as five-time champions. The lowest overall manufacturer rating was DS with 3.6/10.
This edition saw the entry of two new brands with BYD and Omoda, who immediately placed strong at 3rd and 4th place respectively but the NFDA flagged up the very low response rates.
Ford saw the most significant improvement in ratings with an increase of 2.1.
The Summer 2025 edition of the DAS saw a shift in dealer sentiment with almost all of questions showing a decline in scores from the Winter 2025 edition.
In this edition, questions around profitability continue to be among the lowest scoring questions of the survey.
The lowest scoring question was the current profit return from representing your franchise.
Dealer satisfaction with current profit return has gone down a significant -0.5 from the last edition, with an average score of 5.7, down from 6.2 and returning to a similar level to 5.5 from the Winter 2024 edition.
The second worst performance was the return on capital for your dealership. Future Profit return from representing your franchise was also in the bottom five.
The overall sentiment towards EVs has remained broadly flat versus the last survey. Every question scored higher than Summer 2024, however was slightly below the scores for Winter 2025.
Chris Hayes, director of Lexus UK, said: “The brand’s partnership with our Centre Network is hugely valued and truly respected – it is at the very heart of our core brand values.
“At Lexus UK we will continue to listen acutely to the voice of our retailers and act upon it quickly and diligently to drive forward our future mutual success.”
“It is concerning that overall sentiment towards EVs scored slightly below the levels recorded in the Winter 2025 survey. As it stands, the 2025 ZEV mandate targets continue to present a challenge, and the industry is still grappling with the pace of transition.
“Compared to the Winter 2025 edition, it is interesting to note that the primary issues now appear to centre around volume targets and supply, suggesting these areas are not aligning as effectively as they were in the previous survey.”
