Stellantis fires back at its dealers

Yesterday, Stellantis national dealer council president Kevin Farrish accused Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares of short-term decision making which lowered the value of Dodge, Ram, Jeep, and presumably Chrysler. The company dramatically raised prices during the post-COVID car shortages, and is only now slowly dropping prices on some models, such as the Compass, as sales have slowed.

The value of Stellantis brands may have fallen partly due to the dealers themselves, who have consistently been rated the worst in the country in national surveys. Many dealers rushed to slap premiums onto cars and trucks when there were shortages, and added hefty surcharges to “hot” new cars, such as Hellcat Challengers, when they were launched. Some were blamed for taking deposits on such limited edition cars and then selling them to a higher bidder. On the other hand, dealers can point to Stellantis itself for making warranty repairs tougher with parts shortages, low compensation (if any) for diagnostics, and slow approval processes.

Incessantly using the word “brand” weakened the names over time by emphasizing that they are only nameplates of a larger company. One never heard Toyota referring to “the Toyota brand,” especially in the headlines of its own press releases. The idea of Daimler writing press releases about “the Mercedes brand” is unimaginable.

Stellantis’ reply this morning is reproduced below, somewhat shortened:

We take absolute exception to the letter sent by the president of the Stellantis National Dealer Council (NDC), Kevin Farrish. Last month, we introduced an action plan developed with the dealer body that has already shown results. … This is the result of working together with our dealer network and we want to thank them for their constant support and engagement. We meet and talk monthly, have weekly calls and personal conversations at the highest level. This is where such dialogue should take place.

At Stellantis, we don’t believe that public personal attacks, such as the one in the open letter from the NDC president against our CEO, are the most effective way to solve problems. We have started a path that will prove successful. We will continue to work with our dealers to avoid any public disputes that will delay our ability to deliver results.