Car companies name top dealers for 2013

THE top-performing dealers in Australia for 2013 across various automotive brands have continued to surface, with Subaru, Audi and BMW Group Australia (including Mini) among the car companies to stage awards presentations over the past week.

The strength of the Queensland market for Subaru was underscored again with Ipswich-based Llewellyn Subaru following the 2012 winner, Townsville’s Key Motors, in taking out the Japanese brand’s National Retailer of the Year award.

Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior presented the award to Llewellyn Subaru dealer principal Wade Llewellyn at a gala event in Sydney this week, emphasising the need for “huge discipline and multiple skills to run an outstanding dealership in this competitive environment”.

“Wade and his team in Ipswich have combined to offer outstanding customer service and sales success, underlined by great expertise, training and product knowledge,” Mr Senior said.

As with most other retail incentive programs run by car companies in Australia, Subaru assesses its (104-outlet) dealer network’s performance against a range of criteria including sales and aftersales and customer satisfaction.

Queensland accounted for 17 per cent of Subaru’s record sales of 40,200 vehicles last year, which eclipsed the brand’s 2012 total by just 11 units.

Llewellyn Subaru also took out Subaru’s Brisbane regional award. Other regional winners were: Cassels Subaru in Warwick, Queensland (northern region) Taree Subaru, NSW (eastern region) Denlo Subaru, Parramatta (Sydney region) Performance Subaru, Hobart (Tasmania region) and Eblen Subaru, Glenelg, South Australia (central region).

There were no winners for the Melbourne, southern or western regions.

From left: Geelong BMW's Paul Gorell with Phil Horton.
Below: Andrew Doyle with Audi Centre Newcastle's Wayne Sanders.

Subaru Australia’s national corporate affairs manager David Rowley told GoAuto that, in order to qualify, “dealers need to achieve high minimum standards across a number of areas – that is, all areas – of dealership performance, standards and policy, not just sales”.

At a ceremony in Canberra this week, Audi presented its 2013 ‘Mark of Excellence’ awards, with Audi Centre Parramatta in NSW taking out its second consecutive Major Metropolitan Dealer of the Year award, Audi Centre Newcastle securing the Metropolitan DOTY title and Audi Centre Townsville winning the Rural/Provincial DOTY category for the fourth time.

A newly created award for ‘continuous service’ was also presented to dealers who have partnered with the German brand for more than 10 years.

“It requires extreme focus and determination to succeed in such a competitive car market, and amongst a group of experienced dealerships,” said Audi Australia managing director Andrew Doyle.

“We absolutely appreciate the commitment to, and partnership with, the Audi brand from the entire network, and we congratulate the winning dealers for their excellence in all aspects of their business.”

At a presentation in Melbourne earlier this week, BMW Group Australia named Geelong BMW as its 2013 Dealer of the Year.

Accepting the award from BMW Group Australia managing director Phil Horton, Geelong BMW dealer principal of Paul Gorell said the accolade reflected the fact that his dealership was, “first and foremost” a customer-orientated business.

“This award is tribute to our fantastic team at Geelong BMW who create a rewarding and positive culture,” he said.

Under the ownership of the Gorell family since 2005, Geelong BMW has collected six ‘BMW Trophy’ awards in the program, which has been running for more than two decades.

Other winners for 2013 included Sydney BMW (leading metropolitan dealer) and McGuigan BMW in Port Macquarie, NSW (leading rural dealer).

The top-performing Mini dealers in the BMW-owned brand’s annual Excellence Awards program were also announced on the night, with Sydney’s Trivett Classic and Brisbane’s Motorline named the best metropolitan dealers in their respective sales category.

Coastline Mini Garage in Caloundra, Queensland, was named best provincial dealer.

Mini Australia general manager Kai Bruesewitz said the brand’s retailers’ “consistent focus towards Mini provides us with valuable partnerships and sets the benchmark in customer loyalty within the dealer network”.

Below from left: Motorline Mini Garage's Craig Rose and Phil Everson with Kai Bruesewitz.