Ive read a couple of places that Alfa Romeo have dumped more than half their dealers in a customer service drive and also made moves to attempt to improve their own customer service - is/has this happening/happened yet?
If so, anyone with an Alfa noticed a difference yet?
It certainly sounds like Alfa is taking customer service seriously which is great news esp if they want to take on the germans in a big way.
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Alfa & Customer Service -
Is that not a contradiction of terms?
Not singling out Alfa as many other manufacturers are the same.
My experience of garages is Privately that a local owned garage is much better than the garage chains irrespective of the Car Franchise.
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There was story about Alfa UK's new MD doing his own 'mystery shopper' trips around the dealer network. He was apparently ignored in many of the dealerships he visited - presumeably they're now the ex-dealerships!
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I am considering a 156 to replace the A4 we run. On the various alfa forums there are quite a few reports of alfa being very good about payments to people having problems out of warranty. Specifically t/belt failures (alfa recently reduced the interval on petrol engines from 72 to 36k)
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Funnily enough just had a letter from Alfa CS. They've closed my local brilliant Alfa dealer & I'd have to go (if I still had the car) from Medway to either Canterbury or Tunbridge Wells!
Stupid, stupid decision & A. They'll be getting a letter later & B. Damn glad I bought a Jag not a 159 or 166 which I debated on!
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I am considering a 156 to replace the A4 we run.
Crikey thats like going from having roast beef abd all the trimmings for Sunday dinner and then eating a bag of cheese and onion crisps intsead !
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>> I am considering a 156 to replace the A4 we run. >> Crikey thats like going from having roast beef abd all the trimmings for Sunday dinner and then eating a bag of cheese and onion crisps intsead !
No. It's more like staring at a magnolia painted wall, and then changing your mind and watching a high definition David Attenborough documentary on the rainforests.
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I am considering a 156 to replace the A4 we run.
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Crikey thats like going from having roast beef abd all the trimmings for Sunday dinner and then eating a bag of cheese and onion crisps intsead !
As a vegetarian that would seem a good step - but can I have ready salted instead :)
tbh I am getting bored with replacing suspension arms on the audi.
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Any Alfa today that arrives at a dealer would have gone through a new quality control system, where any Body or Interior defects have been rectified.
This is a new scheme as said in A/express recently to compete with such as Audi, so they are also sorting the not so good dealers too.
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They have got rid of 60% of their dealers, and are in the process of obtaining new ones. For a period of time this will be very inconvenient for many Alfisti, me included, and they will no doubt lose sales as a result. However, it had to happen, and I for one am glad. Short term pain long time gain. They (Fiat Auto SpA) are apparantly using the UK dealer overhaul as a model for the rest of Europe and then their return to the US market. They have built a new quality centre nr Bristol, where all the cars will undergo vigourous PDIs. (Quite what this says about the factory and/or their own dealerships is another matter!). I havent had any experience recently to say if things have improved yet, but I would guess it will take a while for it all to come right, but I think they will get it right.
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>>They have built a new quality centre nr Bristol, where all the cars will undergo vigourous PDIs.
Why does a manufacturer spend so much money rectifying defects caused by their own manufacturing plant? Hasn't Fiat SpA heard of Lean Six Sigma manufacturing?
Any company that has such poor quality control should be avoided like the plague. Love them or hate them, the germans know about manufacturing and defect reduction.
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>>They have built a new quality centre nr Bristol, where all the cars will undergo vigourous PDIs. Why does a manufacturer spend so much money rectifying defects caused by their own manufacturing plant? Hasn't Fiat SpA heard of Lean Six Sigma manufacturing?
pag.csail.mit.edu/~adonovan/dilbert/show.php?day=2...6
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>>They have got rid of 60% of their dealers, and are in the process of obtaining new ones. For a >>period of time this will be very inconvenient for many Alfisti, me included, and they will no doubt >>lose sales as a result. However, it had to happen, and I for one am glad. Short term pain long >>time gain. They (Fiat Auto SpA) are apparantly using the UK dealer overhaul as a model for the >>rest of Europe and then their return to the US market. They have built a new quality centre nr >>Bristol, where all the cars will undergo vigourous PDIs. (Quite what this says about the factory >>and/or their own dealerships is another matter!). I havent had any experience recently to say if >>things have improved yet, but I would guess it will take a while for it all to come right, but I think >>they will get it right.
>>They have built a new quality centre nr Bristol, where all the cars will undergo vigourous PDIs. Why does a manufacturer spend so much money rectifying defects caused by their own manufacturing plant? Hasn't Fiat SpA heard of Lean Six Sigma manufacturing? Any company that has such poor quality control should be avoided like the plague. Love them or hate them, the germans know about manufacturing and defect reduction.
Its very true they have a revamped building where the Alfa's are checked etc and a new trained team to carryout the new procedures.
But this is not just to rectify factory defects which are few, the main part of any defect is the logistics from the Factory to Portbury.
You'd be suprise of the amount of defects that occur and are rectified not only to Fiat/Alfa, but to any Manufacture whether its from Japan, Spain, Korea, Turkey, Poland, Hungary or Germany, before you see it in the dealership.
On the whole the Fiat's and Alfa's of today are far better than 2/3 years ago, where they started to pull their socks up and with new management and getting to grips with their manning levels to cut the losses they were having. As reports say their increased sales (in percentage) are out stripping others this year.
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Read in Autocar a couple of weeks ago (7th March edition) that Alfa are to reduce their dealer network down to 50, with only 15 service dealers. If that means only 15 dealers will have service departments I can't see how they can serious about improving service let alone being a serious player in the UK market.
In Autocar this week there was an article about the quality centre (or whatever they are calling it) that all Alfa's will pass through when brought into the uk to rectify faults. Excuse me for missing something, but are Alfa not capable of getting this right at the factory? In the same article there was a mention about how Alfa UK are trialling Italian coffee machines for their new showrooms! Interesting priorities to say the least.
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If I had a tenner for every time I've read Alfa is revamping its dealer/service network or quality control system etc to match that of the Germans or Japanese I'd have enough to buy the 159SW I still secretly covet.
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I nearly bought a Brera....the salesman didn't actually have to do much at all, because I loved the car. It was a straight puchase, however 45 minutes of high pressure 'buy on a 5 years pcp' type selling really got my goat. He just wouldn't take no for an answer.
That and the fact that he NEVER rang back when arranged. Saved me from making a mistake in the end, at least I don't have to amputate the kids legs now!
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Saved me from making a mistake in the end, at least I don't have to amputate the kids legs now!
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when i was a kid, my sister and I went all the way from Blighty to Spain, via France in the back of an Austin Healey Sprite sat on two cushions........(chrome boot rack to help with the luggage)....my step-father was 6'4" so it was always a fight who had to sit behind him.
the following year it was in a Jag mk X which was from one end of the spectrum to the other, two kids in the back of that were totally lost
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