Alphera Financial Services took the top spot in the prime retail credit segment of J.D. Power’s 2013 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study, which was released today. Does Alphera’s size — or any lender’s size, for that matter — correlate to the lender’s customer satisfaction performance?
Alphera provides financing to other franchises owned by BMW and Mini dealers.
First, some details about the JDP data. J.D. Power’s study assesses dealers’ satisfaction with lenders in four areas of finance: prime retail credit, subprime retail credit, retail leasing, and floorplanning. For the second year, dealer satisfaction has increased in all finance provider areas, which is based on a 1,000-point scale. In notching its first-place standing, Alphera scored 970 points; BMW Financial Services came in a close second at 965.
I thought it would be an interesting comparison to see how J.D. Power’s list matched up with our Big Wheels ranking of the Top 100 auto lenders and lessors in the nation to see if portfolio size might be a benchmark for high dealer satisfaction. By my account, there doesn’t appear to be any correlation between dealer satisfaction and lender size. There are large lenders, according to Big Wheels data, that ranked low in the JDP survey. And there are smaller lenders that did well in satisfaction, according to JDP.
Security Service Federal Credit Union is one example. It ranked fifth in the JPD prime retail survey, while coming in at 28th in the nation by outstandings. American Honda Finance, meanwhile, ranked 15th in satisfaction, but third in overall size.
Put another way, bigger does not appear to mean better in auto finance.
Below are the 20 highest-ranked auto lenders in J.D. Power’s prime retail credit segment:
