Chrysler To Introduce Fiat Dealer Net
After a year of bitter battles with its dealers in the wake of a bankruptcy-era dealer cull, Chrysler is about to do the unthinkable: start a whole new dealer network to sell Fiats built in Italy by its new owner. The Detroit News reports that
existing Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram dealers will get a chance to apply to sell the Italian Fiats, but they must be able to operate separate facilities with different sales and service teams in order to win a franchise.
Fiat will return to the US by the end of this year, starting with the Mexican-built Fiat 500.
The new Fiat dealers will be located in 125 major metropolitan areas in the US, and the network should be in place by September, some three months before the 500 debuts. A Chrysler statement gives a few guidelines for dealers seeking a Fiat franchise:
Chrysler had said that it would exclusively draw on its dealers to sell Fiat 500s, and the big question now is the extent to which that remains true. Chrysler won’t say if it will charge dealers for a franchise, or what percentage of Fiat dealers will come from the ranks of existing Chrysler dealers, but considering that Alfa Romeo is scheduled to head stateside, and will likely share dealerships with Fiat, expect competition over these franchises to be tight. Even though the last thing Chrysler needs is more dealers.
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Dynamic 88 and Conslaw both make excellent points. Either the Vespa strategy or the all-in for Chrysler dealers selling Fiat makes a whole lot more sense than a stand-alone strategy that dealers will have to borrow hundreds of thousands for against already-leveraged franchises. If I'm posting a lot on this subject, it's because I hate to see otherwise astute business people making dumb mistakes. And to me, Sergio seems to be attempting three-card monte with Chrysler dealers.
Rusted Source You make a good point. The top 125 Metro areas isn't necessarily synonymous with the top 125 cities. NYC could get two dozen dealers, so could LA. But, I can't know what Fiatsler means, precisely, by 125 major metro areas. So, my point in listing the top 125 cities was to get a rough feel for where these things would sell, and where they won't. I'm certainly not familiar with all 125 cities, but I know some of them. Were I a top Chrylser/Dodge/Jeep dealer in LA, I'd jump on this. Were I a top C/D/J dealer in Grand Rapids, MI. I don't think I'd be at all interested in plowing capital into a stand alone franchise. But again, your point is a good one. I may be wrong in thinking that Chrysler won't get 125 dealers to sign up. There may be 125 dealers in CA who sign up. We'll have to wait and see. I'm going to stick with my prediction.