Some dealerships must be doing exceptionally well as they’re quite keen to turn away business. Our local Skoda dealer simply said up front that in his view having someone on the scheme was guaranteed repeat business as long as they’re treated well. I can’t disagree with that. If we get treated as equals when choosing, then given equal opportunities for servicing and should anything go wrong and we’d all be pretty happy.
Also, a good dealer may well get a private sale out of us should we subsequently choose to leave the scheme. The sales rep at our local BMW dealership was absolutely superb when we ordered our current car. Full day test drive, £500 off the AP (even though they weren’t offering that at the time), 15% off extras, nabbed a cancelled order from another dealership so we only waited 4 months from order to delivery (other forum users at the time were waiting over 6 months for the same car), updates every few weeks without me having to chase etc. If we leave the scheme next year and buy privately, guess who I will be talking to?