TQM in new car dealerships: a study from the firms’ perspective

Purpose – New car dealerships play an integral role in the initial and on‐going relationship between the purchaser and vehicle manufacturer. Evidence, mostly anecdotal, suggests that the buying and servicing experience of the paying public in regards to new car dealerships is far from ideal. With continuous improvement systems such as total quality management (TQM) firmly embedded into the manufacturing and supply side of the car industry, questions still exist surrounding the level of quality being adopted by automotive dealerships. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate if a quality culture is being developed within the dealership network in South Australia by testing a number of key principles of TQM such as: the support and commitment from top management, customer focus and satisfaction, process management, and employee involvement.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was designed and all 105 new car dealerships in the greater Adelaide region were targeted. The service...