Gordon, what is the verdict about your Cummins?

[The Other Ross]

Those are the stories that Chrysler wants to hear about. It's too late to save the good dealerships that were closed and the jobs of the good people who were let go, when the dealerships they were working for closed.

Most of the problems are from the service side of the dealerships, but there are also dealerships with poor and misleading sales practices.
Chrysler wants to know about them all. Marchionne says he is going to fix it and I wouldn't bet against a guy who won concessions with both the militant Italian Unions and the UAW.

The Italian government, once mandated that assembly plants be kept open, regardless of the amount of business they had, Marchionne actually withdrew Fiat from the Italian National Bargaining authority agency and then proceeded to send the unions his own version of a labor contract, all but the most strident union signed up immediately. The remaining holdout had it's contract terminated and Marchionne signed labor contracts with each individual worker who wished to remain employed.

Even though State Franchise laws make it difficult for a manufacturer to exert control over a dealership, there are ways to do so. The manufacturer can limit the number of cars a dealership can receive, they can limit or eliminate manufacture to dealer incentives. They can pull product, they can terminate the contract.

This may take years, but it will happen. If your dealership participates in unethical and shady business practices, your dealership will not remain a part of the Chrysler System, it's just a matter of time.

You're right about the two sides to a dealership.Seems like some have a good service department and the sales force are creeps or the sales force is great and the shop are a bunch of knuckle draggers.Not just D/C/J but all brands.I think Fiat is the answer they've done great things with Case/CaseIH/New Holland(Cnh group) truely competeing with Deere.

[MoparNorm]

You're right about the two sides to a dealership.Seems like some have a good service department and the sales force are creeps or the sales force is great and the shop are a bunch of knuckle draggers.Not just D/C/J but all brands.I think Fiat is the answer they've done great things with Case/CaseIH/New Holland(Cnh group) truely competeing with Deere.

Here is an excerpt from a Chrysler Management Employee. It's a bit hard to read as English is not his first language (small hint!).

Well, it didn't take long to see that a true change is coming for dealers, Sergio already spoke to some dealers at Vegas, and it was very clear that now Sergio is looking very close to have better dealer who most provide a true customer satisfaction, some rules will change, some will be new, even displays at dealers will be new.
My advice to dealers will be to focus on customer satisfaction, this time Chrysler will not play games, if they are not going to perform as they need to be the best, they will very soon become of Chrysler's past history.
Dealers will have to play smart because now more than ever, allocation will also be important, so you better take another look at your orders and start selling a good mixture of products, if not you'll be very sorry.
Dealers are not more ruling, now Chrysler will rule, so follow them, no more sales and service bad practices!!

If this is how they talk internally, you can take heart that things are going to change.