The AM Awards has a new assessor – leading management and business consultants Carter & Carter will be carrying out independent auditing and additional data for the 2004 Awards through a combination of face-to-face interviews and mystery shopping exercises.

Companies can start entering one of the 16 categories, which measure quality, service, standards, innovation and performance, from August 1. Assessments will take place from October with the Awards held at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, on February 26, 2004.

AM editor Stephen Briers says: “We are extremely pleased to have a highly respected organisation like Carter & Carter involved with our Awards – their knowledge, integrity and expertise will be invaluable. “Next year's awards will be bigger and better than ever, with two new categories focusing on manufact-urers' fast-fit and used vehicle programmes. This reflects AM's position as the newspaper for the entire automotive industry.”

Judges for AM Awards 2004 are Stephen Briers, who will chair the panel; Piers Trenear-Thomas, client service director at Grant Thornton Motor Retail; John Kiff of the International Car Distribution Programme; and Chris Oakham, an analyst for AM sister organisation Sewells Information & Research.

Headline awards: Personality of the year, Retailer of the year, Carmaker of the year.

Retailer awards: Large retail group, Small retail group, Volume dealership, Small/niche dealership, Used car retailer.

Manufacturer awards: Used car scheme of the year, Fast-fit programme of the year.

Aftermarket awards: Bodyshop, Repairer, Factor/distributor.

Innovation awards: E-commerce, Marketing, Training.