According to the recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study, BMW Financial Services leads the country in dealer satisfaction for prime retail credit and retail leasing. Volkswagen tops the list in floor planning satisfaction.

The study measures satisfaction with finance providers in five product segments: prime retail, retail leasing, floor planning, sub-prime retail and account management.

BMW Financial Services did well with its credit personnel, application/approval process and termination policy in the prime retail credit segment. In retail leasing, it leads the industry in finance provider offering, lease-end termination policy, application/approval process and credit personnel.

Financial providers performing well in sub-prime retail credit include Ford Credit, GMAC and WFS Financial. Honda Financial Services, Nissan Motor Acceptance and Toyota Financial Services perform well in account management.

Among captive providers, Chrysler Financial shows marked improvement in prime retail credit satisfaction driven by substantially better credit personnel and the application/approval process. Chrysler Financial exhibits similar improvements in leasing.

Dealer profits generated by F&I-related business continue to increase. Dealers report averaging a $693 profit per vehicle this year generated by F&I -- an increase of $44 in gross profit per vehicle (6 percent) compared to 2004. Likewise, profit for used vehicles has increased $20 per vehicle -- up 3 percent since 2004. While used vehicles continue to be more profitable for the dealers than new vehicles, the increase in new-vehicle profits has narrowed the gap between the two in 2005.

The 2005 Dealer Finance Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 4,522 dealer principals who were surveyed between March and May 2005.