Fiat Dealers

Currently reading:
Fiat Dealers

Decro

New member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
55
Points
18
I've only recently bought a Fiat and joined this forum but what seems common is the poor standards of service from "official" dealers.
How can a manufacturer tolerate the problems forum members experience plus the poor showings in surveys elsewhere.
Could it be Fiat are just happy for anyone to want to stock/sell their cars. The volume of cars shifted cannot surely justify a large dealer's overheads.
We see a continual turnover of dealers - is this instigated by dealers or Fiat?
Hoping someone from Fiat reads this and responds.
 
A lot of it has to do with Fiat UK's policy of awarding dealerships to multi franchise groups at the expense of long standing, excellent but often dated small family firms that offered good service in order to survive.
Big chains can't give a monkeys what they sell as long as they make money, nor do they care particularly if you ever return again...largely because they know you will be caught by them elsewhere under another dealer name selling another brand(s).
Not good for Fiat or the customer.
 
Be careful not to tar all FIAT dealers with the same brush, though.... :rolleyes:

My local, Grays, is -- and always has been -- a family-owned and -run business. The staff are always very helpful and friendly; as well as knowledgeable and professional. (y)

I know others on here would also make recommendations, based on experience. :cool:

My experience -- after over 30 years of driving -- is that dealerships for most marques (as in most retailing) vary in quality (and it's not just down to large company franchises, either...): but that some manufacturers are stricter in ensuring consistent high-quality delivery across their networks -- the two that stand out for me being Audi and Toyota/Lexus. :)
 
I agree that not all Fiat dealers give poor service but there seems to be a large proportion that do going from this forum.
Interesting that you mention Toyota as good at vetting dealers. In my area they awarded dealerships to one large group who proved to give poor service. The previous independents were more liable to bow to pressure from Toyota if they got things wrong.
Having one multiple dealer in an area limits the competition which is surely bad for the end user.
Maybe Fiat should go along the route of some other smaller selling marques and appoint service only outlets which do not have the high overheads but could not hide behind sales. The highest customer rated Mercedes official service centre in Uk does not sell new cars.
 
Be careful not to tar all FIAT dealers with the same brush, though.... :rolleyes:

My local, Grays, is -- and always has been -- a family-owned and -run business. The staff are always very helpful and friendly; as well as knowledgeable and professional. (y)

That is what I said in my earlier post - Fiat have a habit of dropping decent, old established family owned operations in favour of multi franchise chains on the promise of greater sales (usually unfulfilled) and shinier showrooms.

The dealer body is not all bad - the smaller family owned outlets that still survive usually offer the best experience....they have to to survive.
 
After 40+ years of Fiat UK dealership experience I can tell you I've seen and experienced the very good, good, bad, ugly and criminal levels of service and quality from dealerships.

Fiat UK have always had a minority market share and struggled to get country wide dealership presence. This inevitably means that there is a bias/push towards signing dealers that can shift/sell cars (no sales = no Fiat UK just like what happened to Lancia in the UK) HOWEVER poor dealership service = loss of Fiat customer and Fiat brand in UK. This is why it is so so important to bring all issues quickly to Fiat UK Customer Services. Also DEMAND a meeting, via your dealer, with you Fiat Zone Manager. If the dealer won't arrange this request this go directly via Fiat Customer Services.

DO NOT back up and slither away. Politely go for the jugular and don't let go till you have a satisfactory response.

I get so so angry when certain dealers tarnish the Fiat experience when I know that 99%+ of the time Fiat UK do care and will resolve issues very quickly where they can.
 
Last edited:
Excellent reply from s130.
However, if a dealer is selling a good number of cars will Fiat UK fall out with them over some service issues.
 
Well I think that Fiat UK will give any poor performing dealer a hard time over level of service. Yes possibly the large sales outlets will get a "5 strikes and you are out" and smaller sales outlets possibly and un-fare only a 2 or 3 strikes ruling.

Fiat over recent times have tried to respond to poor service by now surveying customer satisfaction quite closely AND they do publish dealership "Star" ratings on the UK website.

So for my postcode (Southampton) I see the following ratings:

SGM, Southampton : Sales ***** : Servicing *****
Perrys, Portsmouth : Sales **** : Servicing **
Harwoods, IOW : Servicing *****
Westover, Salisbury: Servicing *****
Westover, Poole: Sales ***** : Servicing ***
others have "Insufficient customer surveys" and thus no rating yet

And as for Grays, Warwick: Sales ***** : Servicing *****

As for the above Excellent SGM rating I personally very strongly support their excellent rating.

As for the above poor Perrys rating I personally almost support that rating based on my poor experience with them in the past where I would have knocked their star rating down. But as it is a long time since I stopped dealing with them it is possible they have improved.
 
could you post a link on the whereabouts of this list in their site..?,

thanks,
Charlie

Hi Charlie

It's not on their site as a list as such, but in the dealer locator part of the Fiat site, when you search for your nearest dealers it returns the results with the star ratings by the side of each dealer.

The Dealer Locator can be found here http://www.fiat.co.uk/uk/financial-services. However, for Oxfordshire (your area and mine), the results are currently as follows:

Mellors of Challow - insufficient customer surveys
Hartwell Abingdon - Servicing **
TH White Swindon - insufficient customer surveys
JayBee Motors Banbury - insufficient customer surveys
Bristol Street Cheltenham - Sales ***** Servicing **
Wessex Gloucester - Sales ***
Pewsham Garages - Servicing ****
Perrys Aylesbury - Sales **** Servicing ***

From experience I found Mellors generally very good and the family has found Hartwells other dealerships poor. I know TH White and JayBee are fairly recent additions to the Fiat network but they both have a decent reputation with other franchises. I've used Pewsham Garages on numerous occasions in the last couple of years and would rate them on a par to Grays Warwick, where my Parents bought their new 500 from and have taken it for servicing. Both are (in my view) between 4 & 5 stars, with Pewsham just edging ahead on servicing from my experience, but Grays Sales being superb (I've no experience of Pewhsam Sales).

The negative experiences I've found on here have been from either the odd independent dealer, which generally have vanished over the last few years or (sadly still remaining), some of the larger chains which focus too much on the balance sheet and take their eye of the customer care ball as a result. The most complained about on here over the years seems to be Arnold Clark, Hartwell and Stoneacre, but even here the service seems to vary wildly between branch so it's not a blanket rule.

Whilst not always the most convenient, but often the most effective thing to do is vote with your feet if you experience poor service. I don't relish the thought of driving for 90 minutes to get my car serviced, but I'd sooner get good service 90 minutes away than drive for half an hour and give a poor outfit my custom.
 
I met an Italian guy earlier this year, driving a Citroen. His father (in Italy) had always had Fiats, but this guy would not. "With Fiat, there is no service" was his quote. So the problem stems from the parent company.

As others have said, the smaller guys are the best, as they care.
 
Hi Charlie

It's not on their site as a list as such, but in the dealer locator part of the Fiat site, when you search for your nearest dealers it returns the results with the star ratings by the side of each dealer.

The Dealer Locator can be found here http://www.fiat.co.uk/uk/financial-services. However, for Oxfordshire (your area and mine), the results are currently as follows:

Mellors of Challow - insufficient customer surveys
Hartwell Abingdon - Servicing **
TH White Swindon - insufficient customer surveys
JayBee Motors Banbury - insufficient customer surveys
Bristol Street Cheltenham - Sales ***** Servicing **
Wessex Gloucester - Sales ***
Pewsham Garages - Servicing ****
Perrys Aylesbury - Sales **** Servicing ***

From experience I found Mellors generally very good and the family has found Hartwells other dealerships poor.

The negative experiences I've found on here have been from either the odd independent dealer, which generally have vanished over the last few years or (sadly still remaining), some of the larger chains which focus too much on the balance sheet and take their eye of the customer care ball as a result. The most complained about on here over the years seems to be Arnold Clark, Hartwell and Stoneacre,

Thanks Liam,
a nice well balanced view - as always,:)

perhaps we just hear more complaints about the larger chains - as the sheer numbers of customers are upping the number of the complaints/ bad experience posts on here:idea:

I've used Mellors - in it's various Guises - for the last 20-odd years,
still get MOT's there regularly (3 -4 times a year),
may try them if I need the TA working on, BUT not sure they can do Warranty work.., :confused:

Great shame about Black+ White ( Newbury) = FIAT group brought in another chain with a shiny showroom( and a locked toolbox),
real "flash-in-the-pan" outfit, but B+W never recovered,

I'm still using Palmer + Phillips for stuff I can't do myself ,
as they have the right gear + Attitude:worship:

could we tempt you to join us for our local get-together on the 8th December ;)

Charlie
 
I met an Italian guy earlier this year, driving a Citroen. His father (in Italy) had always had Fiats, but this guy would not. "With Fiat, there is no service" was his quote. So the problem stems from the parent company.

As others have said, the smaller guys are the best, as they care.

Quite agree.,:)
as I've said in the US side forums;
I've got Italian built Motorcycles,
and their US organisation CANNOT get it's house in order,

3 major changes in 15 years, and it was still such a mess that they essentially

folded the parent company :( ( bought out by another global brand):bang:

pretty sure FIAT group are too big in a GLOBAL field to go to the wall , but it makes you wonder if it's a cultural attitude that's getting in their way..??,
Charlie
 
Couldn't agree more.

They need new engines, that really are economical, new product that has style as well as 'charm', and a dealership network that works!

Going upmarket in their heads is all very well, but when their product still comes down the line with door handles that come off and faulty components all over the place they are on dangerous ground. I don't think any company is too big to fail.

Look at Sony, it was once the halo make for home electronics: not now.
 
Back
Top