New boss at Stellantis/Jeep Australia: Same brand train wreck
Stellantis, Fiat Chrysler by another name, has appointed a shiny new chief executive brand resurrector. But in the face of adverse sales trajectory, can he hope to revive the dead brands?
Jeep in Australia has shiny new chief executive officer, but he’s inherited the same old reputational train wreck.
A dude you have most probably never heard of will stand proudly at the helm of Jeep, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and the Ghost of Chrysler, and he'll be here in a few weeks when I’m sure the ship will be righted again.
Right? Let’s see what kind of feat that would be for incoming CEO Michael Filazzola…
Surely these brands are unable to be resurrected at this point because Jeep sold 30,408 vehicles in 2014, but then word got around, essentially via several different credible channels about just how crap the customer support is, just how extortionate the price of repairs were, and just how bad the reliability was. It's the three horsemen of the automotive apocalypse.
As a result, sales subsequently tanked every year after that, so from 2015 to 2020 inclusive, the yearly figures were smaller and smaller, down to 5748 in 2020.
If you're under 10,000 sales a year in Australia, you're nowhere. You don't have critical mass. So if your business plan was predicated on 20,000-30,000 annual sales and you set up a retail distribution network, putting dealers in place all around the country, then the commercial case for profit is harder to justify every year.
What must the case look like in 2023 and 2024, you might wonder. Just look how expensive Jeep parts are >>
How Jeep’s dealer network must feel, I’m sure. Not just the growing list of never-returning customers…
In 2021, Jeep rose to 7762 sales. But that was just a blip, because in 2022 they dropped back down to 6658 and still well below the 10,000 unit critical mass. So as things stand, Jeep is currently struggling for something close to 80 percent off their 2014 record of 30,000 sales.
That’s a commercial train wreck.
After existing stock goes, Chrysler is gonna bow out of the market soon - it’s almost a guarantee. Alfa is kind of irrelevant at 571 sales last year and Fiat, frankly, is circling the drain also. Fiat cars are worse than Alfa Romeo from sales point of view. Fiat Professional, the vans, they're kind of doing okay, but they're nowhere near Ford with the Transit Custom, for example.
With that colourful backdrop painted, Michael Filazzola said with (presumably) a straight face:
I am looking forward to joining Stellantis and working with the team across its robust suite of brands.
With the company focus moving towards electrification, and a new generation of vehicles from all brands being launched into the market, I feel like this is a great time to join Stellantis.
Sorry, which brand is the robust one?
As for electrification, get back to me when a Grand Cherokee drives across the Simpson Desert on electric power alone - and not including some exercise where five or six big diesel generators are deployed using CH-47s for en route interval charging. Even the diesel ones struggle to do that.
Mr Filazzola takes over from Kevin Flynn who’s retiring having started in 2019, promising to rebuild Australia’s trust in Jeep and blaming online trolls for the downfall of the brand’s reputation. It was nothing to do with those gag orders or disgraceful behaviour toward consumers.
But of course, Jeep Australia hasn’t learned those lessons, seemingly.
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