Jeep Renegade sales in the USA are fine. Mar-Dec 2015: 60 946 Jan-Dec 2016: 108 606 Jan-Jul 2017: 61 885
The Wall Street Journal had a recent article about the break up value of FCA. It was significant (the sum of the parts - brands - being greater then the whole). The logic was that the brands were more valuable to another holder better able to exploit the assets. The analytics were cited as being done by Goldman. I doubt Sergio disagrees with the thesis. After all, he's being trying to hawk FCA to pretty much anyone that will listen, and some (like GM), that won't. He sold Ferrari to build his war chest for investment. The challenge when in this position is the assets are perishable. New platforms are required demanding significant investment so whilst short term sales are interesting, they don't remove the strategic question which becomes ever more present over time. Given, according to GS, the bulk of the portfolio value is in Jeep and Ram, it's almost impossible to sell either of these without a contemporaneous sale of the other assets - the shareholders are left with a hodge podge of chronically subscale brands and few assets to support them. Just my 2c. Philip
Better Buy: Fiat Chrysler vs. Tesla "And the winner is... Believe it or not, Fiat Chrysler has swept Tesla." https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/13/better-buy-fiat-chrysler-vs-tesla.aspx
I had a 4c. Loved the car. Local dealer in Houston are Maserati, Alfa and FIAT. Dealership experience was so awful I won’t consider any of them. I suspect I’m not alone.
Exactly the situation I'm running into now. The dealer in Santa Monica should be arrested for impersonating a service company.
VERY sorry to hear it. My story from the Houston dealer... Drivers side tail light center bulb kept blowing out, so there was a short somewhere. It’s surrounded by LED’s so not a huge issue. Made an appointment and dropped the car off. They couldn’t give me a ride home, annoying, but whatever. A few days later I got a call to pick the car up. It went like this, Service writer: “you need to come get your car.” Me: “ok great! So it’s fixed!” Her: “um, no.” Me “soooo.... why do I need to pick it up?” Her: “well sir, we don’t have any certified Alfa techs at this dealership” (houston is sort of large, but this is the ONLY Alfa dealership in town) Me: “ummmmmmmmm ok. What does that have to do with me?” Her: “well your car is a warranty repair.” Me: “yes I believe so.” Her: “well Alfa won’t pay us if a certified tech doesn’t do the work. So come get your car.” Me: ......... utterly dumbfounded....
So I call today -- more than one month in the shop. They tell me all excited like: "well, we don't know what is causing the problem but the GOOD NEWS is they are flying in 2 techs from Italy to look at your car!" I'm like: "Ummm... so when is that going to happen?" They're like "Well, we don't really know. Maybe this week but I don't have a schedule". I'm like: "So, you don't know what's wrong with my car after a month and you can't tell me what's wrong with it and you don't know when anyone will be able to look at it and you can't tell me when it will be fixed". They're like: "Yes!" Oh boy.....
That's like totally unacceptable and quite unbelievable. Are they at least willing to provide a loaner for the entire time?
This is my largest reservation about pulling the trigger on a 4C. Went to the local Fiat/Alfa/Maserati dealer recently to look at both a coupe and spider. Sat in them, but did not test drive. However, the staff and dealership as a whole caused my alarm bells to ring...something just not right about that whole place.
Those stories are actually worse than my then-new 1993 Alfa Spider warranty dealer service experiences! Meaning in the mid-1990s Alfa had already decided to pull out of North America, but still paid for warranty repairs. It's a shame if now, when they're trying to sell Giulias in some sort of volume, that the service is this bad. Matt
I dropped it off on a Thursday morning (the earliest I could get it there as I flew back home on Wednesday evening) thinking this was a simple code clearing exercise and I'd have it back on Friday night. I was planning on driving the car to Vegas on Tuesday and I didn't want to go on a long run with a Check engine light on. So they gave me a rental on Friday night when the car wasn't finished on time. When I found out on Monday night they were still having problems so I dropped off the rental car on Tuesday morning. It was my decision. I didn't like the Jeep and I didn't want the responsibility for it. I had my mini to get around LA which I liked better. What's weird is the dealer is so far away I have to Uber back and forth because they can't pick me up or drop me off. I can't say I blame them but the dealer that used to be one mile from me shut down permanently. This is the first problem with the car. I've taken it in for its yearly service at both LV dealers and the service and speed was just fine. Now I'm not sure what to do as the car is going off of warranty in about 6 months. I don't know another car I would switch for it right now.
It's a shame as I love the 4c, fun cars for sure. Oh and there is always Lotus with their fantastic deal service!
Bob, Take a look here http://www.giuliaforums.com/forum/969-alfa-romeo-giulia/21730-my-somehow-disappointing-experince-glendale-dealer.html and try contact user AlfaRomeoCares on that site. I know it is a Giulia forum, different dealer, but he seems to get things moving (and not associated with a particular dealer)...
This is why I'm probably not going to buy a Giulia Quad. Are there any good dealerships with factory certified mechanics who know how to fix these things?
+1...I'm quite surprised to hear these stories and find it unacceptable for a brand today. Especially one that wants to be taken seriously in the US market which is highly service oriented.
This is pretty bad top hear. I know of 1 Alfa/Maserati dealer I would trust near me, the others look like upgraded Chrysler/Dodge dealers. Still not at all afraid to buy a 4C in the future, although I would love a manual gearbox version if they would make it.
Interesting thought. Not sure how that works with the car in a California Dealership and the car registered in Nevada. Whose lemon laws does it follow?
Hmm, not sure. With my wife's 2015 BMW, I wasn't happy with how the dealership needed endless attempts and had the car on and off for lengthy times, although they did fix it at the end - I could see the problem was complex and I had some sympathy. I figured out the email address of the BMW NA CEO and the dealership GM, sent an email expressing my dissatisfaction, and corporate VIP customer service responded, contacted the dealer for all details and records, and after review offered to repurchase the car. That was not what we wanted as we liked the car. After discussions, instead they offered to add 7 year highest level warranty plan and 7 year maintenance plan to the car as goodwill. A long convoluted way of suggesting that you try figure out/construct the direct email address of the FCA CEO (not sure there is an Alfa "CEO"), tell your story, incl. you history with the marque, etc. and see what they say. In my experience people high up tend to have good intentions and wanting to make it right for the customers, and hence will forward to an executive assistance, or the like, and tell them to take action and make it right. In my case, BMW stepped up, and left me with a very positive impression and full faith in the brand. Somewhere I believe Alfa Romeo wants to do the same, whatever the resolution may be in your case - add service, warranty, repurchase, ...
Years ago I bought a Mini Countryman S as a daily driver. What a rolling piece of turd that car was. I don't see Mini climbing out of this one either, much like Fiat they are stuck on nostalgia as the driving force for sales.
My first Italian car was a '74 FIAT X1/9. People forget what a smash hit that car was. In the late 70's, I could hardly drive five miles without seeing another one (In Texas, with no A/C). Why didn't they update that (Bertone design)? The 500 is quaint, but I would never drive one. And the new 124 is bombing: https://www.torquenews.com/1083/why-isnt-fiat-124-spider-selling-well-us-and-will-it-turn-around I would like FIAT and Alfa to succeed. But after reading dealer experiences, I think I have a vague clue what one of the main problems is. I really want an Alfa Quad. I could trade in my grocery getter and buy one tomorrow. No way. Not yet.
Just picked up my 4c from service at local dealer in Houston. My experience was quite good. Car feels great, communication from the service manager was clear and responsive and time to complete was reasonable. About a year ago, I had a similar positive experience, which that time included a loaner vehicle for the day. I am sorry to hear about these service concerns. I personally have not encounter any problems so far. Maybe I am lucky or maybe the issue is not as spread out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
