Co-located sales and service speak to having nothing to hide and repeat customers. Passing off buyer

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Automotive News caught up with Peter Grady , Chrysler s VP of Network Development and Fleet, at the NADA conference in Orlando. Grady was candid about what it will take for Fiat stores to get an Alfa Romeo franchise, specifically, the upcoming 4C sports car that wll relaunch the brand in America
The 4C is the first vehicle that comes at the end of this calendar year, and it s going to go to the current Fiat dealers that are performing So if you re selling and you re taking care of your customer, you ll be first up for Alfa Romeo.
One sticking point is the lack of service outlets at certain Fiat showrooms located in malls and other unconventional locations. Because, well the joke about Alfas and service bays tend to write themselves, don t they. Since the 4C will be the sole Alfa product until 2015, Chrysler will apparently give dealers a pass on building service centers right now, but they must be ready for the 2015 full-line roll out.
Why do the service bays need to be anywhere near the showrooms? Seperate service locations are already common, especially in urban areas with high land costs. Showroom in the city, service out in the boonies.
That said I expect my local FIAT dealer to get Alfa they have a very nice showroom/shop built brand new for the FIAT store, target rental car puerto rico and judging by the number toodling target rental car puerto rico around town they are selling plenty of cars. Interestingly, the new store is located immediately behind what was the local Alfa store when they did sell cars here, though totally different ownership. It was Chevy/Saab/Alfa back in the day, still sells Chevy.
Co-located sales and service speak to having nothing to hide and repeat customers. Passing off buyers to some remote hell where their bad experiences can t color new victim s perceptions is a defensive move.
Yeah, that s about right. If they were thinking target rental car puerto rico long term with those requirements (more Fiat models, put Alfa in the same glass palace etc) it might make sense, but then the whole Fiat experience could have gone tits up and dealers are stuck with the results.
The FIAT store in Portland ME is not even owned by the local Chrysler dealer AFAIK. Nor is it particularly large. Room for maybe three small cars in the showroom, 3-4 service bays. Seems about right for the size of the business. Hardly a huge glass palace . They do have a TON of cars in stock, but they seem to turn them pretty fast too I drive by all the time.
When my local megadealer (Pittsburgh area) took on Fiat, they converted their former Subaru / former Hyundai dealership into a Fiat showroom, which is right across the street from many of their other brands.
There are 3 dealers in Atlanta area. One i go to for the oil changes is the biggest one with highest sales volume. Judging by a number of Fiats i see on the roads in my area and the half empty service shop at my dealer (not to mention target rental car puerto rico my own Fiat 500 that s happily tooling around town and have been to Myrtle Beach and South Florida already, picking up over 13K miles in the process), target rental car puerto rico i hope the relibility is there. Alfa, even though it s based on Fiat, is a whole different animal target rental car puerto rico in complexity, and has a not very good reputation in EU, but if it s pretty enough, and engaging to drive, who knows, it may be successful.
Just north of NYC Alfredo s Foreign cars in Larchmont NY. They are a Chrysler dealer but were a Fiat Alfa dealer for many years until they pulled out of the U.S market however they still remained a parts dealer until Fiat returned to the U.S when they re-introduced the franchise.
We ve got two Fiat dealerships in Orlando. One is at Greeneway, which is a massive dealership complex. They ve got a Ford dealership target rental car puerto rico and then across the access road, a CJD dealership. The Fiat studio is a stand alone building, but still clearly a part of the CJD section of the complex. Not sure where their service department is or if it shares facilities with the Chrysler dealer. The other is a part of the Fields target rental car puerto rico Auto Group dealers. In Orlando, Fields also operates the Fisker, Mini, and BMW dealers. They have a CJD dealer, but its 15-20 miles away from the Fiat dealer. The CJD store is in Sandford, whereas the Fiat one is literally right in the hearth of downtown Orlando (used to be the Mini dealer ironically enough). Not sure if they do service at the downtown location as they definitely don t have much space there.
This is a problem- they need to introduce more than one model. The planned rollout 4C at end of 2013 and second model in 2015 is too slow- they must plan to subsidize ALFA s US operations for more than a few years.
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