Alexandre
In the automotive world, satisfaction surveys generally focus on consumers' opinions of manufacturers. However, a recent study by Mobilians took a different approach, by taking a direct interest in industry professionals. The results, in particular for Alfa Romeoare surprising, to say the leastnot to say bad.
The Mobilians survey explored various aspects of the partnership between dealers and manufacturers brand development, consistency of objectives, quality of exchanges, supply, and confidence in the future. The study covered a broad spectrum of activities, including new and used vehicle sales, repair services, spare parts sales, financing, as well as marketing and advertising.
28 brands were evaluated on 30 criteria, thus providing a detailed picture of dealership managers' satisfaction. The value of this survey also lies in its ability to highlight year-on-year trends.
For the Stellantis Group, the news is not good. DS, Fiat, Opel, Jeep and Alfa Romeo occupy the last places in the ranking. In particular, Alfa Romeo is in 28th position, with an alarming score of 2.12 out of 10.. Fiat is a little higher, in 24th position, with a score of 4.13 out of 10. Maserati, although not included in the ranking, wouldn't be much better placed, given that sales in freefall. For the record, the top 3 are Honda, Toyota and BMW, with scores above 7 out of 10.
These results reveal deep discontent among Alfa Romeo dealership managers in France. The brand's low score illustrates the major challenges it faces in its partnership with dealers. The question now is how Alfa Romeo will address these concerns...
For Alfa Romeo and other Stellantis Group brands, it's time to reassess and improve these relationships to ensure not only their survival but also their prosperity in the competitive automotive market. It's hard not to make the link between satisfaction and profitability. Indeed, Stellantis is at the peak of profitability, with a margin of 14.4 %, doing as well as Mercedes, and better than BMW, Audi and Tesla, which are all around 10 %.
No kidding!
The problem for Alfa and Maserati is also the dealers themselves and their deplorable after-sales service, which makes you want to run away at the drop of a hat (outside Switzerland). When you find a sports or luxury brand in France that doesn't even know the products they sell, or their mechanics are incompetent, it's no wonder that owners of Quadrifoglios and GTAs of all types call in specialists or have them serviced in foreign countries (many cross-border commuters do).
As long as we don't have Alfa/Lancia/Maserati products in the same dealerships, with salespeople who receive you properly and mechanics who know their products by heart, it will always be a disaster. I also understand why in Switzerland the Stelvio and Giulia V6 se or Maserati sell so well, because they're popular on Auto-sport.ch and the Swiss in general attach a great deal of importance to them. In France, Alfa or Maserati are never top products, and even with all the will in the world of these brands, we'll always read that a VAG or Audi is better, when in fact the opposite is true. We all remember the French tests that tried to make people believe that the Stelvio and Giulia never exceeded 480bhp, whereas abroad it's the opposite! In short, I'm wary of this kind of survey like the plague, because as luck would have it in the rest of Europe and the USA... the opposite is true. But France will tell anyone who will listen that it's all a sham, whereas we've been able to prove that it's really in France and Germany that the shenanigans are taking place, to the point that BMW, Audi and VAG have had to surrender their titles as the most reliable cars issued by UTAC and denounced by Mercedes and their Japanese competitors. It also proves that making products at any price to make volume... is a load of garbage! And the worst is yet to come
How well spoken. You're 100% right.
The French have bad tongues. That's the problem.
Bravo Mr, excellent analysis. I've been an Alfa Romeo fan since I was a kid, and I've caught the bug...I'm so disappointed to see how this legendary sports car brand is being treated. Clearly, abroad, in Switzerland, the United States, Japan, etc., Alfa Romeo is better valued at every level.
You've said it all.
I agree with you, moreover, dealerships with bad mechanics and labor rates just hallucinating.
Owner of a Giulietta 1.4 multi 170 CV bva Lusso.
In Brittany, not a single dealer capable of handling anything! Deplorable after-sales service!
But I'm happy with my Giulietta!
I hear so many customers complaining about the welcome, the listening, the follow-up, the after-sales service that instead of starting by questioning the manufacturers, they should start by questioning themselves, because I've learned that in Annecy, Alfa and Maserati, like many dealerships, are deplorable and that it's a real scandal, but it's strange that for over 20 years this kind of survey hasn't been done... as if the buyers' fronts were a trifle and that they just had to shut up and be satisfied with what was brought to them, whereas in the 80's and 90's this allowed them to know who they could trust in the long term as far as garages were concerned, and took their customers with real consideration.
I hear so many customers complaining about Italian dealerships everywhere, about the way they're received, the way they're listened to, the follow-up and the after-sales service, that instead of starting by questioning the manufacturers, they should start by questioning themselves. I've learned that in Annecy, Alfa and Maserati, like many dealerships nationwide, are deplorable and that it's a real scandal, but it's strange that this kind of survey hasn't been done for over 20 years... as if buyers' opinions were a mere trifle, and that all they had to do was shut up, look like pigeons and be satisfied with what was brought to them, whereas in the 80's and 90's this was a way of knowing who could be trusted in the long term as garages, and who took their customers' requests with real consideration.
I totally agree and yet I'm a fan of the brand. Alfa Romeo's after-sales service is really their weak point. Lack of knowledge of certain models and if you ask technical questions it's sometimes a complete void. I hope that not all dealerships in France are like this.
We're all fans of Italian brands and all disgusted with their network in general, except for a few apparently.
Hello, I totally agree with you.
But the subject of the survey, it seems to me, is the relationship between the Group and its dealers.
Even here, there's a deep sense of unease, and it's being felt by our customers...
A bad experience: I wanted to buy a Giulia QV, but the salesman and sales manager wanted to sell me a diesel !!!! Forced to change dealership to buy QV... Some things are incomprehensible.....
Thank you, and this is a typical example of how dealerships have no consideration for their customers and impose their choices on them because margins have to be higher. They don't take us for customers... they take us for suckers! It's really scandalous to read this kind of comment too often, which is the sad reality of what dealerships do for their sheep... er customers! This kind of salesman at Lexus, we'll make him understand that he can walk out the door and never come back!
That's why customers don't want to support dealerships when it comes to brands, because they themselves don't respect the wishes of their own customers.
It's Ferrari that's showing just how top-notch they are and how they're a thousand times more profitable than the others, especially when their order books are full until the end of 2026. As long as Alfa, Lancia and Maserati aren't managed in the same way, they'll find it hard to move forward and evolve. What's more, going all-electric will only drive the nail in the wrong direction, and countries like Switzerland and others soon decided to tax EVs 4% like combustion engines because they're not as virtuous as officially decried in Europe!
Except that profitability isn't based on economies of scale, but on reliability and innovation, because by doing that, Ferrari is far more profitable than any other carmaker in the world!
We don't know if there's a microclimate hovering over the Modena region. In any case, the weather in Maranello is very nice, especially these days. Ferrari has just announced its third-quarter figures, and they're more than good. Net profit? It jumped by 45.7 % compared with the same period last year. Purosangue and other 296s are snapped up, and the brand with the red cars is forecasting a record 2023, with a margin of 38% on sales of 5.9 billion euros. The Milan Stock Exchange got the message, and the automaker's share price rose by 6 %. This represents a year-to-date rise of 50 %.
I'm far from knowing all the Alfa Romeo / Fiat dealerships, but the ones I do know are competent at repairs, and offer good service.
I have 3 garages in mind, and the service has always been excellent.
We shouldn't blacken the picture and say that things are worse than with other brands.
Selling may be a different matter.
That's not what the study says. It's not about dealers' competence, but about their satisfaction with the brand.
Where do you live? Please report these Alfa dealerships. Signed an ex-customer (alfetta 2.0 +75 turbo) ready to dive back in for a giulia (but not to be sheared)
It's true that Alfa Romeo products are all too often criticized in a negative way and that it's difficult to find an agent or dealer, which is a pity... they are nevertheless exciting, coffee-hard vehicles.
This isn't the subject of the study, it's not about the quality of Alfa Romeo products, but about dealer satisfaction with the brand.
It's difficult to comment on Alfa's results without detailed scores for each criterion, but we can venture a few hypotheses: the lack of range renewal, which is depressing sales, even if the period is drawing to a close, the resulting low number of vehicles to be serviced, the lack of confidence in the future with the switch to electric, the same outcry as that expressed here in response to the leaks concerning the "Brennero" project... But also the brand's unfriendly practices towards its dealers, such as forcing them to buy models in order to achieve artificial sales volumes, or the desire to turn them into mere agents, de facto depriving them of the independence they often cherish...
I can only endorse what Stanislas and Ced have said. Indeed, the situation has been more than critical for years. Here in Nantes, the Orvault dealership is a calamity, as everyone knows. Selling is easy, we're enthusiasts, so we're bound to buy. But when it comes to after-sales service, the worst is often the worst. Of the three vehicles I've bought from them in 12 years, Giulietta QV, Abarth 140, Giulietta 150 Imola. Each vehicle has had its share of dissatisfactions and even major disappointments. I've definitely lost confidence in this dealership. The ones in La Roche sur Yon and Les Sorinieres will follow very, very closely...
Since I've been driving Italians since 1983, I don't want to do business with them anymore. My interview is with a former Barteau. My passion for Italians spoiled by an unwillingness to do the job they're paid to do, and today I've switched to Lexus, used. EVERYTHING, absolutely everything, gives the impression of superior quality..... And the future of the ex-FCA group looks bleak, given the exponential number of new models on offer...
When you see the new models that are about to arrive, it's enough to make you cry. That's what all the French customers who have GTA versions (147 to GT) from all the neighbouring departments of Switzerland or Quadrifoglio (Stelvio and Giulia) say: they prefer to pay more for after-sales service by coming to Switzerland, but are sure to leave satisfied. deplorable (they sell cars but don't bother to follow them up), or look for independent dealerships that deal with sports cars of all makes, with really competent people (like the one I found in Doussard, but which is moving to Switzerland because it's been murdered by the tax authorities). Lexus is a must when it comes to products, after-sales service and dealerships, just the opposite of its competitors, but they started out by making sensational products, gradually increasing their volume since 1994, limiting it at the outset in order to set up a top-level network and making Audi, BMW and Mercedes look like old-fashioned geezers. The problem with Alfa and Maserati can also be found with Lancia, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land and Range Rover.
Of course, when you pay €3,600 for a headlight (true), the manufacturer's profitability is pretty good... Except that you don't want to take it for another spin...
Except that this is the great mania for selling overpriced parts, and BMW is the champion in this case, because when I see my neighbor who changed his on his 5 Series G30 because it was too foggy inside and brought so much humidity that the wires were oxidized and no more light, changed twice at 35,000km intervals and not covered by warranty... he had it bad (not to mention the 6 Biturbo engine that failed all over the place at 107,000km and that he's in court to get reimbursed).
Now builders, as soon as they can take people for pigeons... they let loose! 😡
FCA should have done what Lexus did, created a real training center that would provide the necessary qualifications for both sales and after-sales staff, because too many customers complain about Italian dealerships (apart from Ferrari) and not mix brands together, which means that customers don't appreciate finding €100,000 cars in the middle of €10,000 cars (like the future Leap, for example). How can you buy a new car if you don't trust the follow-up?
You'd have to do a study (reception, contact, follow-up and after-sales service) of customers VS dealerships like in the 80's and 90's and then I'm pretty sure that customers would put Italian, French, English and German brands... at the end of the list with a catastrophic score.
The follow-up of Tesla customer requests is just as catastrophic, if not more so... A leak revealed that employees were tasked with burying their complaints...
Fredo, that doesn't surprise me at all.
Hello We are very disappointed with the Italian brand alfa Romeo and fiat we have a fiat 500 x all options The La Roche-sur-Yon dealership is more than lamentable I decided to have our vehicle serviced in a small garage The Fiat dealership is finished for us
Sandra, you're just one more customer who doesn't want to hear any more about the chronic incompetence of FCA dealerships... they've become Olympic champions in the category of customers disgusted with the network!
no but nobody understood the subject!!!!!!!
it's how dealership managers judge their relationship with the brand, not how you judge your dealership!
Thanks ^^ Apparently the title isn't clear!
We understand the subject very well, but to make yourself out to be a crybaby for a brand when you can't even provide adequate customer service... that's a bit rich!
All we have to do is carry out the same customer VS dealership survey and we'll quickly notice that the ones who are crying (the dealerships) are partly the main problem, because as the saying goes... before looking at the straw in your neighbor's eye... you have to see the bundle in yours!
Oh yes, yes, I understood correctly. The dealership network gets a lot of bad press, but it's also mistreated by the group... And it's letting people know.
Except that when customers are not at all happy with the concessions... we don't want to hear about it because they've done away with the surveys relating to it!
Capitalism... any way to avoid overshadowing it.
Personally, when I left my old Alfa with my Fiat dealer, I had two calls, one from the dealership and one from Stellantis to give a satisfaction rating. They are bonus/malus depending on the level of satisfaction. It's current for all Stellantis brands (I have the same one for Maserati).
It has to be a survey from an independent company, not one of those group-related surveys that can easily be manipulated to get the desired result. You keep the positive opinions and throw out the negative ones... a procedure as old as time.
It has to be a survey carried out by an independent company, and not the kind of survey linked to groups that can be very easily manipulated to obtain the desired result. You keep the positive opinions and get rid of the negative ones... a procedure as old as time.
It's true that the bad reputation of Italian brands in France is completely undeserved.
Preconceived ideas are legion, and are particularly prevalent among so-called specialist journalists (auto plus, to name but one) who only have eyes for French and German brands!
It makes me laugh when they boast about the qualities of the cars they're supposedly testing impartially!
In all the test matches, French cars always come out on top, short sometimes, but on top, especially when there's a Peugeot in the mix. Who are we kidding? And what about the reliability of French cars mired in recurring engine reliability problems and other disasters caused by AD BLUE for the most common cases.
Patriotism YES, chauvinism NO
In terms of reliability, Alfa, Lancia and Fiat would be more than equal to the French or German brands if they weren't blighted by incompetent staff and a calamitous network.
And then there's Sport Auto France (which claimed that the Giulia had less than 480hp in quadrifoglio mode, while Evo and Sport-Auto Suisse had 510hp instead of 507hp on the same car), M6 Turbo (financed by the VAG group) and the list goes on. I'm sure that's why their magazines, blogs and other sites don't get any hits or sales at all, because customers have the chance to look elsewhere and spot the scam more easily.
Sport Auto magazine has become a rag, they've been talking rubbish about the Giulia QV.
For other titles, the French auto press is systematically chauvinistic and often pro-German cars.
I totally agree, I once wrote to this rag, which published my rant anyway. They've always been down on Alfa and other Italians outside Ferrari.
It's hard to have engine problems and not find solutions at dealerships. I've already had two garages deal with the same problem. Despite the 75%prise en charge, I'm still getting away with 800€ and my warning light is still there.
When I wrote to Alfa, I even suggested some things to try to find a solution...no answer.
I was part of the family, though, and before that I was a Cotech at Renault and a technician at Audi.
All the best.
I bought an Alfa GT 2.0 JTS in collection in June 2011 with 74560km and 2 lights that stayed on permanently. After 2 visits to Alfa Annecy and Albertville who told me there was nothing they could do, I saw a hyper competent independent who found the problems in not even 02h00 of time... proving that dealerships don't give a damn about their customers and are just there to sell them cars and the rest they don't care about. I'm waiting for the customer VS dealership survey to come out, even if we already know the result, but the dealerships don't want to hear about it because it would show that for them, customers are just pigeons to fatten their cash drawers!
Ola! For fans of these fine lines here! of Alfa, Lancia, Maserati and Fiat, I think you'll have understood that the Stéllantis group is managed by a Frenchman, and that everything is done here in France to promote Peugeot! Homemade chauvinism is understandable, but the ego and arrogance of our industrial, financial and political leaders are all too well known, and dealers are not standing up to bang on the table! Watch out, there's going to be major financial (and job) losses in dealerships and elsewhere in less than 5 years. With the sweeping away of combustion engines and...the imposed all-electric system! although denounced at one time by the big boss, but that was .....avant. simple opinion.
Merci Thank you merci a vous Tous!
Ola! For fans of these fine lines here! of Alfa, Lancia, Maserati and Fiat, I think you'll have understood that the Stéllantis group is managed by a Frenchman, and that everything is done here in France to promote Peugeot! Homemade chauvinism is understandable, but the ego and arrogance of our industrial, financial and political leaders are all too well known, and dealers are not standing up to bang on the table! Watch out, there's going to be major financial damage (and jobs) in dealerships and elsewhere in less than 5 years. With the sweeping away of combustion engines and...the all-electric imposed! although denounced at one time by the big boss, but that was .....avant. simple opinion.
Merci Thank you merci a vous Tous!
THAT ALFA ROMEO CONSIDERS ITS CUSTOMERS!!!...alfiste since 1984 at the time the service and mechanics had at heart to help you, today owning a spider brera you ask them to repair the soft top problems you are told that there are no more parts and that the system is too complex that they do not know how!!!!!and after contacting Alfa Romeo France, the most incredible thing is that they tell you that you have to go to forums on the Internet to repair your car or find the parts .....and then they wonder why sales are in freefall !!!!!
That's why many cross-border commuters have their cars repaired in Switzerland or Italy, and even the independents order parts from these 2 countries. The FCA network is a real disaster and is constantly mocking customers. I know a lot of customers who left Alfa or Lancia in the mid-90s to go to Lexus, given the reputation of their products and their network, and they'll never come back to the Italians because of the network, whose catastrophic reputation has become legendary.
Dealers and savers alike would be much better off if the money flowed freely.
But as long as Alfa stubbornly insists on making premium products when its customers don't want them, there's no way out.
I know that in tax havens you can buy a car with your pocket money, but that's not the general rule.
PS: for gpt portraits, I think you need to specify "eyes of the same color" 😉
Alfa isn't a generalist or premium brand (Lancia is the only one that is).
Secondly, the Giulia and Stelvio are a perfect match for the brand, and it's not finances that make the network and after-sales service rotten, but rather the mentality of dealers, who don't want to bother with the proper follow-up of their products, but prefer to sell and pocket the dividends. And it's the same for many other brands, whether British or VAG Groupe for Germany, whose global network is deplorable. Either you have a professional conscience... or you don't. As far as the prenium is concerned, you only have to follow the example of Lexus, which has shown that its way of doing things has worked since the brand was created, because the dealerships care about the well-being of their customers, which is quite the opposite at Audi, for example.
To set the record straight on a BMW and Mercedes profit error, it's not 10% but 07%:
"At BMW in Bavaria, for example, things seem to be looking up. On paper at least. Its deliveries rose by 5.8 % over the quarter, and its sales of electric cars are up by a staggering 80 %. Yet its profits were down by 7.7 %. The same is true of Stuttgart, where earnings are also down by around 7 %. Admittedly, these brands don't compete with the Italians, but their strike force and investments are far superior".