7 minute read
Stellantis revelations
STELLANTIS CAR BUYERS BEING ‘FORCED’ TO PAY FOR NEW CARS STILL STUCK IN PORTS
In a Car Dealer exclusive, James Baggott reports on shock revelations.
Some Stellantis new car buyers have been forced to pay three months’ worth of finance instalments, insurance and tax for new cars they haven’t even been able to collect.
Stellantis dealers have accused the manufacturing giant of ‘short-sighted’ practices as it ‘strong-arms’ them into registering cars still stuck in ports.
Sources say it is forcing its dealer network to register customers’ new cars that haven’t reached showrooms. One franchise holder even claimed the manufacturer had made it register cars that were still on a ferry or risk losing its bonuses.
Some new car buyers have also had to be told by dealers that if they don’t agree to register their car before it arrives at the dealership they’ll lose it completely. Many of these buyers have been waiting up to nine months for their vehicles to arrive.
Stellantis runs Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Fiat, Abarth and Vauxhall dealers in the UK. One Stellantis dealer who represents several of the brands said the current situation was ‘ridiculous’ and that customers were ‘furious’.
The dealers spoke under guarantee of anonymity as they feared further sanctions from Stellantis.
‘This is all down to logistics and not being able to get the cars to dealers,’ said one dealer group boss. ‘They are forcing us to register cars that we know are going to be three months away and it’s a very awkward conversation to have with customers.
‘We had one customer who had paid three finance instalments on their vehicle and they still haven’t seen it.
‘This is so short-sighted. It’s all about bonuses for the manufacturer and allocation with the factories. If they don’t register the cars, they lose the allocation.’
A tip-off sent to Car Dealer explained that some cars were even being taken off customers who had waited months for their new vehicle as they refused to pay before taking delivery of the car.
Stellantis’s problems with new car deliveries is so bad that dealers say they’ve been told to ‘go and pick the cars up from the ports themselves’.
A briefing sent to the network said these were ‘extraordinary measures’.
But another dealer said: ‘That simply doesn’t work. We can’t go and pick up individual cars. They need to get their transport sorted out and get these cars to dealers.’
Jim Holder, editorial director of What Car? and Autocar, told Car Dealer: ‘This smacks of arrogance in a market that is in a rare position of demand being greater than supply.
‘With that equation set to change rapidly in coming months as supply opens up and demand lessens as the cost-of-living crisis bites, it will surely have longer-term consequences.’
A spokesperson for Stellantis said: ‘Vehicle production continues to be constrained due to Covid and component shortages across the industry. More recently, the logistics sector in both the UK and across Europe is facing a shortage of drivers due to the war in Ukraine.
‘The consequence for our customers is that they have long waiting times and delivery date accuracy slipping. Facing this situation, we have taken various actions to ensure that customer orders are fulfilled as quickly as possible, focusing on “first come, first served”.
‘Our focus has been to support these customers by increasing supply and pulling volume through the network at a faster rate.’
Anonymous car dealer
GROUP MD ADMITS TO ‘FRICTIONS’ BUT SAYS DEMANDS WERE MADE FOR THE RIGHT REASONS
STELLANTIS says its dealers have been pushed to register cars that haven’t arrived in showrooms in an attempt to secure future production capacity at factories.
Paul Willcox, senior vicepresident and group managing director at Stellantis, told Car Dealer that fixing these issues was his ‘number one priority’.
He admitted that the demands Stellantis had made had caused ‘frictions’ with dealers, but said he believed they were ‘done for the right reasons’.
Willcox said the extreme measures were needed as Stellantis looked to improve its ‘stock turn velocity’.
He didn’t deny the majority of claims made by Car Dealer’s sources, and didn’t comment on whether bonuses were being withheld for franchisees that didn’t comply.
Willcox said that registering cars ‘in the system’ [stuck in ports] was needed as he looked to secure future capacity of new car stock from factories for next year.
But he told us: ‘We now have the situation you’ve identified that, obviously, some of our retailers have shown some frustration. We recognise that we’ve got to work our way through that. We don’t think it’s a long-term issue, we think it’s something we will resolve within the next four to six weeks. We’re working furiously at the moment on this.’
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