FCA Fails With Extra Points
FCA Fails With Extra Points
I grew up in the Chrysler family. Gale Motors Dodge-Plymouth-DeSoto of Fall River was my childhood playground, and after graduating from college, I went to work for the factory as a District Sales Manager. In my time, Chrysler has had more thrilling ups and downs than the Coney Island Cyclone. Dealers like my Grandfather and Father learned to hang on tight every ten years or so, until the next batch of innovative products came out. Today, when it finally seemed like the ride had been more-or-less smoothed out by a savvy global partner, FCA’s intent to increase its franchise footprint in the next couple of years has thrust the FCA dealer community’s stomach back up into its throat. It’s a bad idea, and will damage FCA’s most vital relationship – with dealers.
Chrysler has always been the survivor of the auto industry, with a nick-of-time knack for surprising the market with leap-ahead products, conjuring public excitement, and goosing the gritty salesmanship of its dealers. But it really seemed like Chrysler had come to the end of the road in 2009 when Daimler-Benz ditched it after a decade of driving it like a rental. Sergio Marchionne picked it up for the tow fee. The real cost was borne by hundreds of shuttered franchises, and the remaining ones forced to upgrade in a long period of tight credit and struggling sales.
Living up to its survive-to-thrive creed, the Chrysler brands came back strong. Jeep and Ram cemented their brand identities as segment leaders, Dodge and Chrysler passenger cars armed-up with stripes and scoops to hold the “American Muscle” hilltop, and the leaner dealer body posted the industry’s biggest market-share grab by boosting volume from 931,000in 2009 to 2.24 Million in 2016.
In appreciation for saving Chrysler nearly whole, the FCA dealer family steadied the new European management’s stumbles entering the American market. They politely applauded when the management announced in 2014 that it would differentiate Chrysler (brand) and Dodge passenger lines by dropping “duplicate” models – including the venerable and volume-inous Grand Caravan – while also shuffling development and production of successful models. Um, okay Paisano!
The FCA marriage was more a stroke of luck than of genius. Now, as the market predictably cools down after a classic boom cycle, the partners are each struggling with their old challenges: a slowed-down Chrysler-brands development program, and Fiat stuck in a break-even niche. Sales crested last year, and volume continues flat into 2017. But a lack of sales points is not the problem. The franchise expansion seems less like a bad idea than a desperate one, and may even turn out derelict, by diminishing the Chrysler dealer body’s historic ability to ride-out periods of peaked product lines.
As much as anyone, I want Chrysler to succeed and thrive – especially our region’s franchised dealers. Instead of fluffing up the point-count, FCA should trust its existing dealers to do what they always have when things went wobbly – survive. The dealers I have known since childhood will polish their shoes, put on a new tie, and sell, sell, sell until the new product cavalry arrives.
SURVIVAL IS THE FCA DEALERS' STRONGEST GAME.
LET THEM PLAY IT!
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