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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » The elephant in the corner is getting ugly

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Aug. 12, 2010 11:53 a.m. alfadriver Dork

Vigo wrote:

Looks like Chrysler expects to sell Puerto Rico as many cars as it sells in Michigan!

Why do you say that? Michigan'ers (or whatev) aren't any farther from Milwaukee or Detroit than a lot of Texans are from El Paso or Ft Worth. There are places in Tx that are 300+ miles to the nearest of the listed Tx cities.

Texas has 5 times the land area of Michigan, and it has 5 more dealerships.. seems right.

One location for Puerto Rico, one for Michigan. And Puerto Rico is smaller than Metro Detroit (~30x90 miles and ~3M people). Let alone the entire state.

I don't think he used Texas in his judgement, but I may be reading that wrong- since he didn't mention Texas in the line.....

Eric
Aug. 12, 2010 1:10 p.m. John Brown SuperDork

My point is Michigan has 5 other communities that would be well served with a Fiat dealer (Ann Arbor, Bay City/Midland, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Oakland County) seeing as they are either college towns (hello target market) technical towns (not everyone builds cars here) as well as affluent suburbs all around the state.

I also see other states poorly represented, but I don't live there and care more about my state.

Also I grew up in the ghetto that is New Port Richey, Fl... WTF are they thinking about that choice?
Aug. 12, 2010 1:24 p.m. carzan HalfDork

FIVE in Ct? Seriously? Not that I'm complainin'
Aug. 12, 2010 2:28 p.m. Jeff Dork

I wonder if it has anything to do with how many Chrysler dealerships were closed in an area, or maybe deals stuck with ownership groups? Looks like they won't be to hard to find. When do we get it (the 500)?
Aug. 12, 2010 2:42 p.m. dimeadozen Reader

Uh-oh, Denver will be getting a dealership. Hope craigslist has the bandwidth to handle all of the LoDo hipsters simultaneously listing their Vespas after they place their Fiat orders.
Aug. 12, 2010 2:46 p.m. Strizzo SuperDork

In reply to alfadriver:

i think his point was, someone in western michigan could have a shorter drive to one of the FOUR chicago locations, or one of the six (?) ohio locations than someone that lived, say, in the rio grande valley, or up near lubbock would have to drive.

interestingly though, houston has several MINI dealers, where other places that have one, or none appear to be getting a disproportionate number of FIAT dealers. could this be FIAT trying to beat MINI into those markets, and merely have a presence in markets where MINI has already moved into/taken over, or there is little perceived upside to opening a dealer?

for example, good luck trying to sell a MINI or 500 size car with ANY badge on it in Lubbock, Texas.
Aug. 12, 2010 2:51 p.m. 4eyes HalfDork

Tulsa AND Little Rock....cool
Aug. 12, 2010 2:53 p.m. alfadriver Dork

Strizzo wrote:

In reply to alfadriver:

i think his point was, someone in western michigan could have a shorter drive to one of the FOUR chicago locations, or one of the six (?) ohio locations than someone that lived, say, in the rio grande valley, or up near lubbock would have to drive.

Well, up to a certain point Detroit will be closer to most in the lower pennisula than Chicago, and especially Milwaukee- that darned lake. And there are very, very few points in Michigan that are closer to places in ohio than detroit.

I still see the point that metro Detroit > Puerto Rico- size and population. And we both get the same number of locations.

Again, as far as I could tell, Texas wasn't part of the original point/joke, whatever. If you want to compare Texas with Puerto Rico- that's up to you. Why Texas came into it is a mystery to me. More so that the HQ of Fiat in the US is in a 'burb of Detroit. Funny how we get as many as a tiny island in the Carribbean.
Aug. 12, 2010 3:17 p.m. Strizzo SuperDork

In reply to alfadriver:

no, texas was not mentioned, the texas example is that just because its there, doesn't mean that its going to sell the same number of cars, nor be the same size dealership. would you assume that a dealer in PR is going to have the same size showroom and staff as a dealer in michigan, or a dealer in El Paso?

would a conversation about stalin and lenin be off track talking about hitler (yes i just went there )?
Aug. 12, 2010 3:18 p.m. John Brown SuperDork

Hitler was just a misunderstood artist.
Aug. 12, 2010 3:21 p.m. John Brown SuperDork

Strizzo wrote:

In reply to alfadriver:

no, texas was not mentioned, the texas example is that just because its there, doesn't mean that its going to sell the same number of cars, nor be the same size dealership. would you assume that a dealer in PR is going to have the same size showroom and staff as a dealer in michigan, or a dealer in El Paso?

would a conversation about stalin and lenin be off track talking about hitler (yes i just went there )?

Think about this:

Michigan is the "home" of Chrysler Corporation. There are thousands of employees in Michigan that would be willing to partake of their employee discounts on a new Fiat or Alfa. It is corporates decision to not sell and service them to the people who are most often likely to improve the brand.
Aug. 12, 2010 3:47 p.m. Vigo HalfDork

One location for Puerto Rico, one for Michigan. And Puerto Rico is smaller than Metro Detroit (~30x90 miles and ~3M people). Let alone the entire state.

I don't think he used Texas in his judgement, but I may be reading that wrong- since he didn't mention Texas in the line.....

I see that but the alternative to one dealership in puerto rico is NO dealership. The dealership in Detroit could be a flagship top level dealership. The dealership in puerto rico could be the bottom level of a parking garage.

Michigan is the "home" of Chrysler Corporation. There are thousands of employees in Michigan that would be willing to partake of their employee discounts on a new Fiat or Alfa. It is corporates decision to not sell and service them to the people who are most often likely to improve the brand.

I can see that.. but then again, maybe chrysler corporate didnt want to make it any easier for local newsjournalists to be taped standing in front of it while delivering whatever the next bad news is about the whole chryco/fiat thing.
Aug. 12, 2010 4:27 p.m. vwcorvette Reader

Vermont and New Hampshire get nothing again. We have no Mini, no Smart, and no Jaguar (really) and now no Fiat.

I want my Abarth!!!!

I'll bet it's gonna actually be Latham. NY outside of Albany where we got our Smart.

Any idea how soon before we see the Abarth version?
Aug. 12, 2010 7:13 p.m. Hal Dork

Whoo, Frederick, MD gets a Fiat dealership!! We have been left out of all the other nice ones (BMW, MINI, Smart, etc).

Now to see who gets it and where it will be. Having a separate facility won't be a problem. I'm not sure I could tell you where each dealership is located anymoree the way they have been moving around. At least 5 of them have moved in the last 6 months.

Last week the ex-Pontiac-Mitsubishi dealership moved to the other side of the city into the empty ex-Saturn building. So their building is empty. So is the ex-Oldsmobile-Nissan (now just Nissan in a new building); the Dodge-Jeep place is empty (business closed); One of the Lincoln-Mercury buildings (business consolidated to one location); One of the Ford dealerships is empty(business closed); Chrysler moved to a new building and is using the old one for used cars only.
Aug. 12, 2010 7:18 p.m. irish44j HalfDork

Fairfax, VA. Shocker. I can expect to see about a dozen Abarths at every autocross starting next year, since people around here seem to buy whatever is new and trendy every year.
Aug. 12, 2010 7:34 p.m. Appleseed SuperDork

Chi-town. Wooot!
Aug. 12, 2010 7:57 p.m. RexSeven Dork

vwcorvette wrote:

Vermont and New Hampshire get nothing again. We have no Mini, no Smart, and no Jaguar (really) and now no Fiat.

I'm surprised Fiat (or Mini or Smart) won't open a stealership near Burlington, VT. I'd bet 500s would sell like hotcakes to the college kids and greenies there. NH, I'm less surprised about. I can imagine most prospective 500 buyers would be in the more populous southeastern NH area, where there is easy highway access to both Boston and Portland.

I cannot wait for the Abarth to arrive here. I'd love for the dealership to have the Abarth EsseEsse option like they do in Italy- you get to open a wooden crate with the parts, they install them for you, and you get to keep the crate as a souvenir. It's about the ONLY new car I would consider trading my MS3 for.
Aug. 12, 2010 7:58 p.m. Mikey52_1 Reader

So I have Salt Lake or Denver or Sea-Tac...700 miles south or 900 miles west...maybe the Abarth experience will have to wait a bit.
Aug. 12, 2010 8:09 p.m. triumph5 Reader

carzan wrote:

FIVE in Ct? Seriously? Not that I'm complainin'

Big dollar multi-manufacturer dealerships. Small chrysler dealerships in S.W part of state got screwed.
Aug. 12, 2010 8:15 p.m. Yavuz New Reader

The Fiat 500 Abarth is the first new car that I've really been excited for in a while. There will be a dealer up the road from me. If the price is right - I will buy one.
Aug. 13, 2010 2:42 a.m. thatsnowinnebago Dork

Ventura County! WOOO!

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