According to the most recent NADA’s Dealer Attitude Survey, Lexus remains the most-liked brand by dealers. Toyota held the second spot, followed by Subaru repeating at third, Honda remaining in the No. 4 position and Porsche moving up one spot from the winter survey to finish fifth. The rest of the rankings for the latest survey included Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Jeep and Ram. Kia and Ford fell out of the top 10 this round, while Volvo and Ram entered in. NADA confidentially surveys franchised dealers twice a year about their relationships with their automaker partners. They are questioned on satisfaction with brand franchise policies, the automaker’s field staff and franchise value, and those opinions are measured. NADA declined to offer a complete list, including brands that finished at the bottom. The summer survey was conducted over a one-month period from July to August and NADA shared survey results privately with automakers in a series of meetings in late November.

The rankings are simply a measure to help automakers engage with dealers to improve business practices. Rankings also are shared with NADA’s industry relations committee and brand-level dealer council members in meetings. This survey also measures the consideration of dealer input on product, quality concerns and advertising programs. In that ranking, Lexus also finished atop the list, followed by Toyota, Subaru, Audi, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Lincoln. The top four in that list remained the same from the winter survey. NADA also tracked dealer response to the survey and found BMW dealers had the highest rate of response, at 88 percent. Toyota followed, at 81 percent, Kia at 76 percent, Porsche at 72 percent, Volvo at 70 percent, Mercedes-Benz at 70 percent, Hyundai at 67 percent, Mini at 67 percent, Acura at 66 percent and Audi at 65 percent. During the last survey, Mercedes-Benz dealers had the highest rate of response but BMW was able to take first this round.