Filed under: Car Buying, Budget, Wagon, Hatchback, Earnings/Financials, Fiat
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On average, Fiat dealers have only been selling about 17 cars a month.
We’ve been wondering for some time how Fiat dealers in North America have been getting along with just one model range in their showrooms up until recently. Franchisees spent millions building, stocking and manning sleek new ‘studio’ showrooms, only to have but a single model to sell, the cherubic 500. And even with its many derivatives, the Cinquecento is still an inexpensive model with its attendant lower margins. Perhaps it should come as no surprise then, that just 45 percent of US Fiat dealers are said to be profitable.
The tide was supposed to begin to change with the introduction of the 2014 500L, a bigger model that plays in a larger-volume segment, but Automotive News reports](http://www.autonews.com/article/20131007/RETAIL07/310079959/dealers-fume-as-fiats-u-s-comeback-stalls#axzz2gxGYHkAy) that dealers aren’t seeing much of an uptick in sales, and they are fuming. Fiat’s volume declined a whopping 24 percent in September, meaning that sales are about the same as they were through this time last year - under 33,000 units. It’s still too early to tell how the 500L is doing - last month, the five-seater sold 1,031 units, with advertising and customer awareness still getting up to speed since the model’s June launch. The shortfall, then, can be mostly blamed on sales of the standard 500 range cooling.Continue reading Just 45% of Fiat dealers are profitable, and they’re angry about it
Just 45% of Fiat dealers are profitable, and they’re angry about it originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 07 Oct 2013 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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