The problem with Italian brands ..
Discussion
The problem with Italian brands is not the brand but the people who manage them. If the management produced good cars the public would buy them.
I’ve worked with Alfa and Lancia in the 80s and 90s and the management for those brands were disorganised and corrupt. The management in Slough would regularly lie to the dealers about allocations and dealer responsibilities.
I was managing an Alfa dealership and came back from a well earned holiday and my zone manager had had the administrator in my dealership register a number of unsold cars saying I had agreed to register them as demonstrators which I certainly hadn’t. The hierarchy in Slough were focused on registrations no matter the means of getting them. Occasionally good cars were produced and they sold well. The 156 is a good example. But people buying them then experience after sales treatment and parts delays. Many service departments lacked sufficient training. Again in the Alfa dealership I was managing a manager from Slough dropped his car in for service while he was in the area. As he drove away after the service a wheel came off on the road. He was supposedly getting preferential treatment.
Stellantis are talking about dropping some brands completely, as I say it’s not the brands it’s the management.
I’ve worked with Alfa and Lancia in the 80s and 90s and the management for those brands were disorganised and corrupt. The management in Slough would regularly lie to the dealers about allocations and dealer responsibilities.
I was managing an Alfa dealership and came back from a well earned holiday and my zone manager had had the administrator in my dealership register a number of unsold cars saying I had agreed to register them as demonstrators which I certainly hadn’t. The hierarchy in Slough were focused on registrations no matter the means of getting them. Occasionally good cars were produced and they sold well. The 156 is a good example. But people buying them then experience after sales treatment and parts delays. Many service departments lacked sufficient training. Again in the Alfa dealership I was managing a manager from Slough dropped his car in for service while he was in the area. As he drove away after the service a wheel came off on the road. He was supposedly getting preferential treatment.
Stellantis are talking about dropping some brands completely, as I say it’s not the brands it’s the management.
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