Re: Hollands Largest Fiat Dealer Quits

["Joseph Kanellopoulos" <kanellj@domain.elided>]

Not sure how thhe car business works here, but I know for a fact that in
Greece at some point FIAT demanded a yearly fee for anyone to be able to fly
the blue fait flag, and be an authorized dealer/service center. Should it
not be the other way around, knowing how many little things a delaership has
to fix, and how "highly" the book (and hence FIAT through warranty charges)
compensates those dealers.

Joseph
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Hancock" <timhancock@domain.elided>
To: "alfa digest" <alfa-digest@domain.elided>
Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2001 4:44 AM
Subject: Re: Hollands Largest Fiat Dealer Quits


> There is another way of looking at this in the light of certain trends in
the
> Motor industry in Europe.
>
> Manufacturers are increasingly trying to control and own distribution
> channels. Some years ago we had the court case in the UK involving the
Nissan
> importer Octav Botnar who did all the hard work in putting Datsun/Nissan
on
> the UK map. Mr Botnars accounting and tax affairs turned out to be, how
shall
> I say "imaginative" and Nissan used this as one of the pillars of their
case
> to close down his franchise and replace it with a Nissan owned one.
>
> Last year Mercedes-Benz gave all UK dealers one years notice of the
cessation
> of their franchises and announced plans for their own dealer network. The
> dealers took M-B to court and the notice period has been extended, but the
> trend is inescapable.
>
> Fiat/Alfa have long been unhappy with the overall reputation of their
dealers
> (Though they have been equally reluctant to accept ANY corporate
> responsibility for this state of affairs).I would not be surprised to find
out
> that this is part of a game plan to own the dealerships themselves or
merge
> them with GM dealerships at some point. I know that dealers get fed up
having
> to fix Alfas before they go out to customers when they can get 'fault
free'
> cars elsewhere, and they then resent being told by FIAT to clean up their
act,
> control prices more tightly and basically cover up all FIAT'S quality
control
> shortcomings at their own expense. This case may be simply an "I've had
> enough" bust-up, but you never know.
>
>
> Tim Hancock 164TS Lusso    Boston UK
>
> Re: Location... Location:  Please could digesters in Boston Mass. make it
> perfectly clear which continent they are posting from. That twice I've
been
> five miles down the road to go and look at a car 'forsale' only to
> realise...........well you figure it out......(with tongue ever so
slightly in
> cheek)
>
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