Chrysler Standalone Service Centers by 2010. Maybe.
When I lived in the UK, any and all deliveries of big ticket items were [not] made in "six to eight weeks." In the carmaker spin game, almost everything that isn't happening now is due in 2010. Until, of course, 2010. When it'll be 2011 or 2012. Anyway, according to Chrysler's executive vice president of North American sales, the automaker will unveil its first standalone service center on that fabled date. Lest the company reveal any pertinent info or commit to a particular plan, Steven Landry followed his boss' lead in revealing what the Brits call sweet FA. "Chrysler is in discussion with 'under 10' retailers about the strategy, he says. Landry would not detail which markets or dealerships are involved in the talks… 'In some cases where one dealer is buying another one in a situation where there are not enough service stalls the buying dealership will be able to use the other dealership service stalls as a stand-alone service center,' Landry says. 'You need to have the right number of stalls.' Props to Autoblog's Michael Harley for using this quote to finish with the appropriate bathroom humor. "Funny, any woman at a professional sporting event could have told you that." Ba-doom-boom.
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Does this include warranty work? Cause we all know chrysler loves to deny warranty coverage for a plethora of reasons. Would kinda make the shops pointless.
I would think the best thing about these shops would be to make dealerships less attractive to keep open. If you are trying your best to get those guys to close their doors, taking away the service dollars could really speed up the process.
It seems to me that the problem of oversaturated dealerships means that dealer A and dealer B are in relatively close proximity and that combining the operations, perhaps in a new facility located midway between the old A & B makes sense. Chysler argued that the problem was "enough bays" and didn't make a convenience argument. If you really want to improve customer convenience, improve the (&*)&*)(& product to reduce the need for repairs! The micro-showroom idea is a non-starter because you need selection and a good PROFESSIONAL sales staff to really make it work. Which brings up another point, the generally low quality of salespeople. Why the industry spends so much money on advertising to get potential customers in the door and then unleashes a herd of largely rotten salespeople on them has long mystified me.
Honda makes some of the best product in the industry AND they have some of the busiest service businesses you'll ever see. The professional looking and acting personnel make people want to bring their cars in for service there.