As a customer, you should pay attention to the “Best Car Dealers 2022” seal of approval. Then you have found a top dealer.
Dealers and customers were surveyed
In an online survey between November 2021 and January 2022, Statista interviewed around 12,000 customers who had bought a car or found out about buying a car in the past three years. They rated the dealers in four categories:
1. Advice: How competent and friendly do the salespeople provide information?
2nd offer: Was information and sales conditions communicated fairly and transparently, and were test drives and additional services offered?
3rd prize: How do you assess the price level and the flexibility of the sellers in price negotiations?
4. Overall impression: Would you buy a car from this dealer again? How do you rate the after-sales service?
In addition, 20,000 dealers were invited to rate their colleagues online, including the 6,000 companies with the highest sales and the 1,000 dealers who had received awards in the previous year. In addition, all car dealers were able to take part in the survey via autobild.de.
In a third part of the survey, AUTO BILD readers were able to take part in the dealer survey online via our website. In the survey, dealers and private car buyers were also able to rate or recommend every car dealership they knew. Every dealership with a business address in Germany was taken into account. However, each location had to receive a minimum number of reviews to be included in this year’s statistics.
When evaluating the data, all dealers were treated equally by the Statista experts: whether authorized dealer or car dealership without brand loyalty, large chain or small family business. In the end, this resulted in the list available for download here with those 1000 dealers who received the best marks from customers and colleagues.
Congratulations to all car dealerships for whom good customer loyalty, fair prices and sustainable service are more important than a quick euro. We have sorted the 1000 top dealers in Germany for you according to the ten postal code regions. So you can see at a glance where you can buy your new car in your area at decent prices and with a good range of services. All results can be found in AUTO BILD 12/2022 or in the following PDF download:
This is how the survey worked
How exactly the determination of the 1000 best car dealers worked can be read in the following questions and answers catalogue.
What is behind the “Best Car Dealers 2022” award?
Who could take part in the survey?
• Car dealer
More than 20,000 car dealers were invited by Statista GmbH, the independent market research institute, to take part in an online survey. The car dealers had the opportunity to recommend their colleagues there. The invited dealers included the top 6000 car dealers with the highest turnover and the 1000 best car dealers in 2021. The list of invited dealers has been carefully researched from company databases, trade associations and internet directories. In addition, every car dealer was given the opportunity to take part in the survey via autobild.de.
• Customers
Customers who had bought a car within the last three years or who were actively inquiring about buying a car at the time of the survey were surveyed via an online access panel. In addition, every customer had the opportunity to submit reviews via autobild.de. A total of around 12,000 customers were surveyed.
Participation in the surveys was of course free of charge and without any further obligations for the participants. Of course, the recommendations and ratings given remain anonymous, including to AUTO BILD, and were only evaluated in aggregated form.
When did the surveys take place?
The customer surveys took place from November 2021 to January 2022 and the retailer surveys from December 2021 to January 2022.
What was asked in the survey?
• car dealer
The dealers were able to recommend all the car dealers they knew throughout Germany that they themselves would recommend to a customer. Self-nominations were of course not permitted and were sorted out in the data control and validation by Statista and therefore not evaluated.
• Customers
The respondents could name all the car dealerships they know. For the car dealerships with which they had already had concrete experience, they were asked whether they would be willing to recommend them. In addition, customers could rate statements from the following four categories for each car dealership:
• Advice: e.g. B. Appearance and competence of the salespeople
• Offer: e.g. B. Transparency of information and conditions, offering test drives and additional services
• Price: e.g. B. Price level and willingness of the seller to negotiate
• Overall satisfaction: e.g. B. Probability of repurchase, evaluation of after-sales service
Which car dealers could be recommended and rated?
In the online surveys, dealers and private car buyers were able to recommend or rate every car dealership they knew, so that every car dealership had the chance to be included in the evaluation. Car dealerships with their own location in Germany were included in the survey.
A long list of over 38,000 car dealers was included in the questionnaires to assist in naming the car dealerships. The survey participants received suitable suggestions for their input using an auto-complete function (similar to a Google search). All car dealers not included in the longlist could of course also be named and rated as free entries.
How were the “Best Car Dealers 2022” determined?
After the end of the field phase, the dealer recommendations and customer ratings were combined in a scoring model to determine the best car dealers in 2022. The following were taken into account for each location:
• Number of recommendations by dealers
• Number of entries by customers (awareness of the car dealerships)
• Customer willingness to recommend
• Customer evaluation in the four categories of advice, offer, price and overall satisfaction
Regarding the individual aspects of the four categories, the participants were asked how important they were to them when buying a car. Based on these answers, the respective aspects were weighted differently in the evaluation and transferred to an overall grade (in school grades).
Furthermore, a minimum number of ratings had to be reached so that the car dealership was taken into account when determining the best car dealers in 2022. The range of new cars for each of the top 1,000 dealers was then determined by car brand. The research to determine the respective brands was carried out via the dealer websites, the dealer search function for the individual brands and by telephone.
