Total Quality: Is it a Practiced Management Philosophy in New Car Dealerships?

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 automotive dealerships is far from ideal. With continuous improvement systems such as TQM firmly embedded into the supply side of the car industry, questions still exist surrounding the level of quality being adopted by car dealerships. The purpose of this paper is to establish if quality is a pursued culture within new car dealerships and determine if key TQM principles such as top management support, customer focus, process management, and employee involvement are practised factors. Results indicated a reasonably high level of commitment to quality within dealerships, including the important success factors of TQM. Questions still remain about quality endorsement, the type of quality systems being used and the depth of penetration of quality at the ground level.