[aldo90731]

Auto News reports that Lexus and Toyota remain the most loved franchises by dealers, according to the NADA Dealer Attitude Survey. A distinction that the two brands have held for decades.

Dealers still like Lexus, Toyota most, survey finds

The Top 10 franchises dealers ranked highest in the summer 2019 National Automobile Dealers Association's Dealer Attitude Survey are:

1. Lexus
2. Toyota
3. Honda
4. Subaru
5. Porsche
6. Mercedes-Benz
7. Kia
8. Volvo
9. Hyundai
10. BMW

BMW elbowed Jeep out of last year’s list. Apparently BMW had been struggling for years. A new CEO took over in 2017 and promised to improve relations with its dealers.

Dealers rank franchises on several areas like ability to make money, listening to dealers, honoring promises made, etc. Ability to make money being the key driver of satisfaction.

 

[Dave Z]

... and making dealers remake their buildings in gaudy, outdated themes based on CEO whim would presumably not increase satisfaction?

Chrysler Millennium Dealer - Branding Standards and Motor Village (at https://www.allpar.com/dealers/millennium-branding.html )

(October 2010) Chrysler is adopting new branding standards for the dealers, who have been told they must scrap any pentastars on their signage, scrap signs from before the P2000 program, and upgrade to new signs at their expense. Dealers must also remove any trace of older brands, such as Eagle, Plymouth, Imperial, and Valiant, along with the pentastar logo at the top of signs created in the P1900 (red, white, and blue) and P2000 (red top, white on gray brands) programs.

The new signs, as pictured at Allpar in the past, have the four current brands stacked up, with Chrysler on top and Ram on bottom, held up by a silver side pole; the only logos are for Ram and Chrysler, with Dodge and Jeep using stylized letters alone.

The specifications for the new signs and dealership structures are extremely specific. Only one sign provider is handling the work; and dealership specifications go into color, texture, and exact dimensions and angles. All brands must be shown on the building fascia, always in the order Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram; and the Chrysler series of brands must be separated from any other brands, at the least by the dealer name. The spacing between badges and the size of the dealer name are both specified.

Dealers who have retrofitted older sign structures to match the P2000 or P2100 signs must remove and scrap their signs. The newer ones use routed-aluminum panels with push-through copy; the cabinet uses painted aluminum extrusions. The Chrysler badge has fluorescent backlighting; the Dodge, Jeep, and Ram logos use internal LED illumination. Dealer names are black during the day and white at night (using LED-lit performated black vinyl), with specific type and spacing.

The dealership buildings themselves are essentially “box stores,” with a tall tower in the middle. These towers, rising 20-28 feet, are more graceful than the last iteration, which was lower and wider; Chrysler claims that the arches in the towers were inspired by the Chrysler Building.​

 

[unverferth]

As you eluded to it's more than just the building.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. After all these years couldn't FCA figure out how Toyota/Lexus does it ? Would it be that hard ?

 

[aldo90731]

As you eluded to it's more than just the building.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. After all these years couldn't FCA figure out how Toyota/Lexus does it ? Would it be that hard ?

Toyota shows a level of respect towards dealers, customers, employees and suppliers that I haven’t found with any other automaker. Not even Honda. This is a direct result of Toyota‘s corporate culture that views all stakeholders as long-term business partners.

The best way I can describe FCA’s relationship with me, as a customer, is “abusive.” I can only imagine how CDJR dealers must describe theirs.

 

[unverferth]

Toyota shows a level of respect towards dealers, customers, employees and suppliers that I haven’t found with any other automaker. Not even Honda. This is a direct result of Toyota‘s corporate culture that views all stakeholders as long-term business partners.

The best way I can describe FCA’s relationship with me, as a customer, is “abusive.” I can only imagine how CDJR dealers must describe theirs.

Correct Aldo. And that is so sad.

 

[FreeLantz]

How can a company that wrongfully terminated hundreds of dealers just a few years ago really have a healthy relationship with dealers now? It will take years for that to go away. Everyone left must still secretly fear the moment they could be screwed out of their franchise. No surprise to see GM and FCA aren't on the list, maybe a little more strange that Ford isn't. But then again Ford dealers probably aren't very optimistic right now with the product line changes and some botched new model introductions recently (Explorer being perhaps the biggest).

 

[aldo90731]

Yeah, declaring bankruptcy and terminating dealers can’t be good for establishing trust. Nevertheless, Chrysler wasn’t on that list even before the bankruptcy.

Can't imagine dealers that got swindled into a Fiat-Alfa Romeo franchise would be very happy with their other FCA franchises either.

 

[FreeLantz]

Before the bankruptcy was DCX and sales banks, and a culture of forcing stuff on the dealers that I can best describe as like being in business with the mob.

 

[Adventurer55]

The new incoming regime has its work cut out for it here. Tavares arguably, understands American tastes better then what we have now due to his time with Nissan. He needs to park his butt in the top floor at Auburn and stay there until change is made.

 

[aldo90731]

Auto News reports that NY dealers threaten to sue FCA over tactics to reduce inventory FCA built in anticipation of what it thought dealers would order, but didn’t.

FCA threatened with lawsuit by N.Y. dealers over sales tactics