12:03 pm, August 21, 2025
The UK motor trade is undermining customer trust through unnecessary barriers such as poor access to service histories, misuse of GDPR, and slow finance processes.
That’s the view of the Independent Motor Dealers Association (IMDA), which is calling for urgent industry-wide collaboration to fix the issues.
Its chairman Umesh Samani, who’s the owner of Specialist Cars and Harris Motor Company in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, said: ‘Too many needless obstacles are damaging trust in our industry — and in many cases, they’re being created by our own peers.
‘I believe it’s time for dealers, garages, fleet operators, and finance companies to unite and put the customer experience first.’
Samani added: ‘We’re proud to have forged collaborations with partners that support the association and its dealers, delivering tangible benefits across the board.
‘However, we still face unacceptable barriers — often introduced by our peers — that frustrate customers and erode confidence in the profession.’
The IMDA has narrowed the obstacles down to: the missing link in vehicle service history, GDPR misuse, and barriers in the finance sector, and has called for collective responsibility across all sectors of the industry.
On service history, Samani said: ‘Service history is a critical indicator of a vehicle’s value and reliability. Yet, with the shift from physical service books to digital platforms, many customers struggle to access accurate records.
‘I’ve heard too many instances where dealers promise documented history — only for the buyer to discover none exists. From personal experience: a privately purchased Jaguar owner presented complete invoices from new, yet the Jaguar portal reflected no service history beyond the pre-delivery inspection. This isn’t an isolated case.’
When it comes to GDPR, the IMDA believes using it as a ‘pretext to block vehicle information requests is simply unacceptable’, and owners ‘often face needless bureaucracy when seeking access to their own vehicle’s history’.
Getting settlement statements or clearance letters from finance companies and providers ‘often delays transactions for weeks, even months’, said the IMDA, with these hold-ups undermining customer satisfaction.
The IMDA is making calls for dealers, garages, fleet operators, and finance companies to collaborate more and not obstruct. Samani said: ‘If we don’t call out what’s broken, we cannot expect meaningful change.’
Samani heads up an association that is free to join and has around 2,000 members. It offers legal, compliance, HR, and FCA-related guidance.
He concluded: ‘The IMDA stands ready to support — through our Code of Conduct, legal guidance, and partner network. Let’s be the industry that raises standards, not one that erects unnecessary barriers.’
