ChooseESC! Car dealers are failing to tell their customers about ESC

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Car dealers are failing to tell their customers about ESC

A study published 10 June 2008 by the German automobile club ADAC shows that car showrooms across Europe are failing to tell their customers about the importance of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) despite the key role in cutting road deaths acknowledged by the EU.

The survey covered a total of 500 dealerships across 10 European countries:

Belgium, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Spain and the Czech Republic and for 10 car brands:

Citroën, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen.

The survey only focused on car models where ESC is optional to investigate if car dealers make an effort to sell this safety technology when the customer asks for safety features. However, many showrooms are rated as “very poor” in promoting ESC with Italy at the bottom of the league table closely followed by France, Austria and Spain. While Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovenia top the table in providing information on ESC to car buyers, their performance is only found to be “acceptable” at best, the study shows.

The in-depth mystery shopper survey finds that showroom sales staff rarely recommended ESC as a safety system and failed to promote the technology. The survey also shows that:

Six countries are rated as “poor” overall. They are Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, France and Italy.
Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia and the UK only reach an “acceptable” standard at best
There were virtually no advertising campaigns for ESC across Europe
Mazda (scoring 40.5), Ford (40.7) and Citroën (37.5) were the worst rated dealerships in terms of promoting ESC. They fell behind VW (50.4), Toyota (48.0) and Renault (49.6)
In terms of overall safety features only one in five salespersons focused on safety as an important feature with the ‘look’ and price of cars mentioned more often.

The price difference between countries and brands is another surprising finding in the study. The same technology for the same car can cost more than 3 times e.g. in the Netherlands than in Italy.

The survey follows a new EU commitment at the end of May 2008 to make the anti-skid technology mandatory by 2012. The full report ‘Pan-European Shopper Study Focusing on Quality of ESC Sales Information’ was funded by the FIA Foundation and is available at www.fiafoundation.org.

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