The newly published survey covered 29 franchises including Chrysler and Jeep who were separated for the first time in this survey.

The survey covered the area of overall franchise value, asking dealers to give an overall value to their franchise on a scale of 1 to 10. The average score of 6.6 was the lowest for this question since the summer of 2012 and was 0.6 points down on both the winter 2013 and summer 2013 surveys. Thirteen of the 29 networks surveyed recorded beneath average scores for the question, with 15 scoring above average.

The NFDA said that he results to this question are seen as the main barometer of dealer opinions regarding car manufacturers. The top-performing franchises are very much seen as the franchises to hold and aspire to and are often reflected further in other question scores in the survey, helping to explain why a franchise is performing well or poorly in this question. Significant movements in the score will reflect the relative changing fortunes of a particular franchise and any major events that may have caused them.

Commenting on the results, Sue Robinson, director of the NFDA, said: ‘With the declines in scores for certain key questions, there is still scope with certain manufacturers to develop their relationships with their dealer networks as some still fall well below average in many areas of the survey.’

She added: ‘Land Rover remained the top performing franchise in this question with a score of 8.8. However, the score is 0.8 points lower than for the survey last winter and the lowest score in the past 2 years. Honda was the lowest scoring brand with a score of 4.6. This is a whole point lower than for the winter 2013 survey and suggest dealers have some significant concerns with their manufacturer in this network.’