Keep used car complaint figures in context

Leading vehicle remarketing company, BCA, believes that recent figures regarding used car complaints issued by the UK’s official consumer advice body, Consumer Direct, need to be put into context.

Consumer Direct claimed used car sales by independent retailers prompted the highest level of complaints in 2007, ahead of mobile phones, internet service providers and general building work. According to Consumer Direct, fewer complaints were made about used cars sold by franchised dealers.

However, BCA has monitored motorists’ satisfaction ratings with their used cars over the past decade in the BCA Used Car Market Report and believes that complaints are actually falling when the growing volume of used car sales is taken into account.

BCA’s Communications Director Tony Gannon commented “There seems little to be learned by simply comparing the numbers of complaints about high-value used cars with relatively low-value, new commodities such as mobile phones. While no-one wants to see total complaint figures rising in any industry, there has to be some context applied to the numbers if they are to make sense. ”

“And if the number of complaints only represent a small percentage of the total sales, then that should be explained. Just over 55,000 complaints were made about used car sales by dealers last year – it sounds a lot but only represents around 1.4% of the circa 4 million cars retailed annually."

He added “Our 2007 Used Car Market Report had motorists recording a satisfaction rating of 96% and a dissatisfaction rating of just 1% with their used cars which supports the Consumer Direct survey in the context of the total used car market. And it’s important to note that the satisfaction level has actually increased in recent years – it was at 93% in 2000 and 91% in 1997, when we first questioned motorists on the topic.”

Gannon concluded “The high build quality of today’s cars, coupled with the ever increasing professionalism of the dealer sector should see these satisfaction levels maintained, and even improved on, in the future.”