Volkswagen Group South Africa received joint top honours for all-round best OEM followed by Ford Motor Company SA and BMW MINI South Africa in third place.

Glasurit triumphed as best Paint Brand followed by Duxone and R-M.

The awards ceremony, which was once again jointly hosted by Sambra and Lightstone this year, saw the honouring of top vehicle insurers and OEMs, as well as automotive Refinishing brands, for excellence in service provision to Sambra members.

Sambra, an association of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), represents the majority of motor body repairers in the country and focuses on creating and maintaining industry sustainability and development.

“We completely revamped the criteria and questions for the 2022 survey, encouraging a much broader response from our motor body repair sector and really homing in on the top five suppliers they do the most business with.

We believe this is a truer reflection of what is happening on the ground, and we’re excited to see the results this year,” says Charles Canning, Sambra National Chairman.

“The primary objective of this important annual initiative is to measure and track the overall satisfaction levels of Sambra members with Insurers, OEMs and Automotive Refinishing brands,” says Bernard De Vantier-Strydom, Head of Projects and Research at Lightstone, which independently collated and audited the research and was the headline sponsor of the awards.

The survey targets the eligible 677 Sambra members nationwide to rate the insurers, OEMs and Refinishing Partners. In the Insurer category, there were seven questions and awards related to Service Excellence, Payment practices and the overall winner.

“We would like to extend our congratulations to all our winners who continue to demonstrate excellence in their respective categories and who, together with Sambra, create a more robust and resilient industry,” he concluded.