Servicing satisfaction: brand specialist garages vs non-specialists

Is it best to have your car serviced by a brand specialist or do non-specialists provide a better overall service?...

2017 What Car? Servicing Satisfaction Survey

Updated26 January 2023

Car reviews

Hyundai Inster

New Dacia Duster

Volkswagen ID 7 Tourer

View all new car
reviews

Specialists versus non-specialists: six to 20-year-old cars

The UK has more independent garages than any other European country. In fact, 64% of our service and repair outlets are independent. There are two main types: independents who are happy to work on any make and model, and specialists who stick to one brand or group of brands. We’ve crunched the data for both types of independent workshop to see which scores higher for overall satisfaction.

Non-specialist independent garages

In many instances, the non-specialist independents keep customers the happiest, and Subaru owners are the happiest of all, posting the highest ratings for staff attitude and quality of work. Alfa Romeo owners, meanwhile, rated non-specialists higher for value than owners of any other brand of car, and awarded a higher overall score than they gave to specialists.

Volvo and Lexus owners are pretty impressed with all aspects of the non-specialist service experience, scoring it higher for staff attitude, quality of work and value than they did the specialists.

Car deals

In contrast, Mercedes owners prefer specialists, citing them as better for politeness and workmanship, and only rating non-specialists a little better for value. In contrast, Citroën owners rate specialists higher for value, but they prefer the staff attitude and quality of work provided by non-specialist workshops.

Rank	Brand	Attitude	Quality	Value	Score
1.	Subaru	97.9	97.9	95.8	97.2
2.	Alfa Romeo	95.7	95.7	98.6	96.7
3.	Lexus	96.6	95.9	95.9	96.1
4.	Volvo	97.2	97.2	93.5	96.0
5.	Mini	96.8	95.5	93.1	95.1
6.	Suzuki	95.6	95.2	94.0	94.9
=7.	Kia	95.4	93.6	92.6	93.9
=7.	Mazda	95.6	93.7	92.3	93.9
=9.	Mitsubishi	94.9	94.9	91.8	93.8
=9.	Ssangyong	95.0	93.8	92.5	93.8
11.	Jaguar	94.7	94.3	92.1	93.7
12.	Audi	95.0	93.9	91.9	93.6
13.	Renault	95.5	92.7	92.1	93.4
14.	Toyota	95.3	92.9	91.5	93.2
15.	BMW	94.8	93.4	91.2	93.1
=16.	Skoda	95.5	93.5	90.0	93.0
=16.	Honda	94.5	93.6	90.8	93.0
18.	Jeep	92.9	92.9	92.9	92.9
=19.	Citroen	94.5	94.1	89.7	92.7
=19.	Seat	93.9	94.1	90.1	92.7
=19.	Vauxhall	93.8	93.2	91.1	92.7
22.	Fiat	94.4	92.6	90.9	92.6
23.	Hyundai	94.4	92.3	90.8	92.5
24.	Land Rover	92.9	93.4	90.6	92.3
25.	Nissan	93.6	91.6	90.8	92.0
26.	Ford	94.1	92.7	89.0	91.9
27.	Volkswagen	93.4	92.5	89.5	91.8
28.	Mercedes	93.3	91.6	89.6	91.5
29.	Peugeot	94.5	91.6	88.2	91.4
30.	Dacia	90.0	89.3	90.0	89.8
Average		94.5	93.2	90.9	92.9

Specialist independent garages

Although Lexus owners voted their specialists the best overall, the scores actually lag behind those given to non-specialist workshops. Alfa Romeo specialists take second place, beating non-specialists when it comes to attitude but falling behind on quality and value.

Land Rover specialists finished just outside the top 10. Owners appreciate their politeness and good workmanship, but they think they’re a bit pricey. The same is true of Porsche owners, who rated the brand’s specialist independent workshops 12th.

Mazda and Renault owners are less satisfied with specialists than with general workshops, scoring the latter higher in all three disciplines. In fact, Renault specialists, along with those for Mini, Nissan and Vauxhall, scored lower than the worst-regarded non-specialist garages, with value for money being a particular weakness and ratings for staff attitude being very disappointing.

Rank	Brand	Attitude	Quality	Value	Score
1.	Lexus	95.7	95.7	91.4	94.3
2.	Alfa Romeo	97.1	94.3	90.0	93.8
3.	Kia	93,3	96.2	91.4	93.7
=4.	Honda	96.1	94.2	89.7	93.3
=4.	Audi	95.0	95.0	89.9	93.3
6.	Citroen	94.3	93.6	91.4	93.1
7.	BMW	95.0	94.3	88.2	92.5
8.	Toyota	93.6	92.9	90.7	92.4
9.	Mercedes	94.5	94.7	87.7	92.3
10.	Volvo	96.4	93.8	86.2	92.1
11.	Land Rover	96.3	93.5	85.6	91.8
12.	Porsche	97.1	93.6	84.3	91.7
13.	Hyundai	93.3	93.3	88.0	91.6
14.	Ford	92.7	93.6	88.2	91.5
15.	Volkswagen	94.2	92.5	87.1	91.3
16.	Seat	92.6	92.6	88.4	91.2
17.	Skoda	92.5	93.3	87.1	91.0
18.	Mazda	94.7	89.3	88.0	90.7
19.	Jaguar	91.8	91.5	84.9	89.4
20.	Mini	91.4	92.4	83.8	89.2
21.	Renault	88.2	90.0	87.3	88.5
22.	Vauxhall	90.3	89.1	82.9	87.4
23.	Nissan	88.4	90.5	78.9	86.0
Average		94.2	93.5	87.5	91.7

What Car? says...

Unless you’re tied to a franchised dealer by a servicing plan or the terms of a finance agreement, you’re better off using an independent workshop instead – even if your car is less than three years old.

Our data reveals that independent garages are more highly rated for customer satisfaction overall than franchised workshops, scoring 92.4%, compared with 88.0%. Although franchises only lag behind the independents a little for attitude and quality of work, it’s value for money where they fall down the most, with car owners rating franchises nearly 8% worse – franchises scored 81.1%, compared with 89.4% for independents.

And when you examine the independent outlets in detail, it’s the non-specialists that provide the best customer service, scoring 92.9%, compared with 91.7% for the specialists. While the specialists and non-specialists are both rated highly for the politeness of their staff and their quality of work, specialists’ scores are dragged down because customers don’t think they provide such good value for money.