Manufacturer of the Year 2005
Nissan South Africa

Nissan SA’s 2005 hat trick! For the third year running, Team Nissan was nominated
Overall Winner of SAVRALA’s Manufacturer of the Year Awards. They also
obtained a silver in Leasing.

Nissan takes overall lead at Moty Awards 2005

For the third consecutive year, Nissan South Africa took the lead at Friday night’s 2005 Southern African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association’s (Savrala) awards taking the title of overall Manufacturer of the Year (Moty).

With the top overall three winners separated by just half a percent, second place went to General Motors South Africa and third to Ford and Mazda.

For the past two years, Nissan has also taken rental and leasing line honours but this year, found them pipped at the post.

After a leave of absence, Toyota South Africa returned to the rental podium taking first place, up from fifth place in 2004. Mercedes-Benz remained constant in second spot while Volkswagen South Africa made a welcome return in third position.

In the leasing section, top honours went to General Motors South Africa, with last year’s winner Nissan SA, taking second place. Maintaining their top three ranking, Ford and Mazda came in third.

Now in their 11th year, the primary focus of these awards is on the relationship shared between South Africa’s motor manufacturers and importers with their leasing, fleet management and rental clientele. The objective is to give recognition to those who have consistently provided superior levels of service and support as judged by their Savrala-member leasing and rental peers.

The awards are the culmination of the results of two separate surveys undertaken during April and September in which leasing and rental respondents are asked to rate manufacturers and importers across numerous criteria. In the rental questionnaire, these include communications, dealer support, maintenance and theft prevention while in the leasing questionnaire performance levels measured relate specifically to fleet pricing, residual values, maintenance and support, pre-launch information, manufacturer contact and most importantly, the quality of dealer network delivery.

Vehicle model ranges and sales volumes are specifically not measured in these surveys.

Anthony Calcutt of Port Elizabeth-based, Kondile and Associates Management Consultants facilitates the confidential survey and evaluation process and says that the results provide a very accurate analysis and reflection of Savrala members’ impressions of the manufacturers and importers.

“The questionnaires are completed by a panel of people who depend on and deal with each manufacturer. This ensures that an accurate, objective and company-wide perspective of the service levels is obtained,” explains Calcutt.

The biggest area of improvement seen from the rental respondents was in communication, the timeous information on new models or changes specifically.

“It is pleasing to note that two areas which could be considered as most important to rental companies are the questions where the overall average of all manufacturers is the highest, these being scope of intervals of service and theft prevention effectiveness,” he adds.

On the leasing front, communication had again shown significant improvement and there was also a noticeable upswing in respondents’ responses to financial issues, maintenance and support as well as communication and marketing.

As with the rental section, the area of most concern to leasing and fleet management companies this year has been whether manufacturers’ marketing actions support the retention of resale values. “With the current low interest rates and new vehicle prices being kept to a minimum, this problem unfortunately affects all spheres of the used vehicle industry,” says Calcutt.

“The stature and importance of the Savrala Moty awards has grown tremendously over the last few years,” says Sherl Camera, president of Savrala. “They reflect the importance that our members have as one of the largest vehicle purchasing blocs in the country and emphasise the needs of our members in their dealings with the motor manufacturers and importers.

“The fierce competition among them has had a positive spin-off for all of us and exceptionally high levels of service and support combined with a commitment to long-term relationship-building have become the order of the day.

“On behalf of the association’s members, I would like to congratulate the winners and thank the manufacturers and importers for their support. The fleet management and vehicle rental industries are vitally dependant on both parties for the successful delivery of their products and these awards are key in determining the well-being of these relationships, which ultimately benefits our mutual customers.”