The second biggest jump appears in buy/sell provisions (#4). Like inventory repurchase, the percent of dealers having buy/sell provisions is low, only 56%, however, this is an increase over 1995 by six percentage points and eight points over 1994.

Having a written sales agreement (#2) with a dealer's manufacturers continues to receive the highest percentage rating in this category. 80% of dealers have written agreements with their manufacturers, an increase of two points over last year and sixteen points over 1994. Progress is being made in the number of written sales agreements offered to dealers, and RVDA, as an advocate for written sales agreements, hopes this will continue.

The issue of having exclusive territory (#6) in sales agreements receives high overall ratings again this year, though the percent is under 80%. The percent of dealers having territory protection increases one percentage point over last year's rating (77%) and seven points over 1994 (71%).

Including important provisions in sales agreements such as territory protection, inventory repurchase, and buy/sell provisions are important to dealers. Given the results over the past three years, progress appears to be made in offering these items to dealers, and RVDA encourages continued progress with those manufacturers who contain these provisions and urges those without such protections to include them in their sales agreements with their dealers.

SALES AGREEMENT QUALITY II

Manufacturer performance individually appears to be improving in the areas of good cause termination requirements, reasonable market share requirements, and reasonable arbitration/contract dispute provisions. Increases in this category as a whole, however, are modest.

Newmar, which receives the highest amount of satisfaction for this category again this year, improves 4% over last year, moving from 73% to 77% overall satisfaction for Sales Agreement II. Holiday Rambler improves from 69% in 1995 to 76% overall satisfaction in 1996, more than a modest improvement. Carriage, Winnebago, and Coachmen RV are close in the amount of satisfaction with 76%, 74.5%, and 74.3% respectively, an improvement for both Winnebago and Coachmen RV.

Like Sales Agreement Quality I, this category's ratings continue to improve, though only modestly. Regrettably, low satisfaction ratings continue to plague this category, despite progress.

Dealers continue to perceive their market share requirements (#9) as reasonable with an overall satisfaction score of 72%. In 1995, 70% was the satisfaction rating and, in 1994, it was only 65%. We include the ratings for this question and not Question Seven because it is beneficial to highlight the satisfaction level with those manufacturers who offer market share requirements in order to reveal the percent of dealers who consider the provision as reasonable.

Satisfaction levels for manufacturers offering reasonable, good cause criteria for termination (#8) slowly improves to 68%. In 1994, the satisfaction was as low as 60%. Last year, it slightly increased to 64%.

On the question of whether manufacturers offer reasonable arbitration/contract dispute provisions (#10), dealers continue to feel that this is a weak area in sales agreement quality. A 61% rating in overall satisfaction is as far as the level goes this year, slightly up from 1995 and 1994.

PRODUCT COMPETITIVENESS

Product competitiveness satisfaction with many manufacturers continues to be one of the highest among the five categories. For the past three years, dealers have rated design and quality of the products they sell quite highly. For the third consecutive year, Newmar receives the highest level of product satisfaction. In 1994, its' level of satisfaction was 92.5%. In 1995 and again in 1996, Newmar dealers give this product an 88% satisfaction rating, a slight decrease from 1994.

Jayco and Holiday Rambler receive nearly the same amount of dealer satisfaction, 85.2% and an even 85%, an improvement for both manufacturers over 1995. Winnebago and Coachmen RV also are close in satisfaction levels. Winnebago improves over 1994 and 1995 with 83.2% satisfaction. Coachmen RV also improves over both years with 82.6% satisfaction.

Individual manufacturer performance illustrated on the previous Product Competitiveness chart is a good indication that the overall satisfaction with manufacturers' products would also be high. This category continues to be the highest in all overall ratings, but with little or no increases in satisfaction this year. In 1995, ratings actually decreased slightly from 1994. Nonetheless, dealers are satisfied, for the most part, with the products they sell, as illustrated by the 1996 industry average (78%), by far the highest average of any of the categories measuring overall satisfaction.

For example, satisfaction with product design is perceived rather well, at 81%. Product quality satisfaction is a bit lower at 77%. Both ratings, however, do not reveal a notable increase in satisfaction over a three-year period.

SALES SUPPORT QUALITY

For the second consecutive year, Holiday Rambler receives the highest level of sales support satisfaction. However, the amount of satisfaction falls to 82.7% from Holiday's score of 86% last year. Continued