AUDI is pioneering a centralised ordering system for business sales designed to protect it from widely predicted changes in the company car tax system. A pilot scheme involving four leasing companies and a dozen dealers has already proved successful and Audi is considering a wider application of the new structure over the coming year.

The system involves leasing companies ordering cars centrally through the manufacturer, which in turn refers the order to the dealer best suited to serve the end user. The short term objective is to improve customer service further by strengthening the link between dealers and drivers, but in the longer term it is designed to place Audi in a much stronger position within the retail sector.

It has taken Audi three years to gain the confidence of the leasing industry and its dealer network to get the new structure off the ground. By reinforcing the link between dealers and end-users, Audi will be better positioned to hold on to those customers if changes in benefit-in-kind tax force perk drivers out of company cars.