Stellantis is not having a good time right now. The Transatlantic automaker just posed a 15 percent overall U.S. sales drop in 2024 in comparison to 2023, and now it seems its dealers don’t even trust the direction it is heading in. A new dealership sentiment survey from Kerrigan Advisors, a dealership consulting firm, says that 72 percent of dealers said they had no trust in Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, owned by Stellantis. It unseated Ford for the top spot.
Just two percent of dealers said they had a high level of trust in the automaker, and 26 percent said they had moderate trust, according to Automotive News. The issue really comes to light when you look at the numbers from a year ago. In 2023, 39 percent of dealers said they had no trust in Stellantis. That is a 33 percent jump year-to-year. Ouch.
Kerrigan Advisors surveyed 635 dealers anonymously, looking to see how they felt about “the future value of their business, franchise earnings and valuation expectations,” Auto News reports. Rounding out the top-five least trusted brands were Infiniti (59 percent say they have no trust), Nissan (58 percent), Lincoln (53 percent) and Ford (37 percent). On the flip side of the coin, the brands most trusted by their dealerships were Toyota (83 percent), Lexus (70 percent), Subaru (57 percent), Honda (53 percent) and Porsche (41 percent).
Here’s more, from Automotive News:
This is the second year the franchise trust question appeared on the survey. Ford was the least trusted the prior year, with 48 percent of respondents expressing no trust in the brand. After a year of revised expectations around preparing for and certifying to sell electric vehicles, the percentage of dealers saying they had no trust in Ford improved by 11 percentage points, the most of any franchise. Ford ranks fifth among least-trusted brands.
Erin Kerrigan, managing director for Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., told Automotive News that Ford’s about-face on EVs fueled its improvement.
“I think that their reversal on their EV strategy as it related to the retailers was very, very positively received,” Kerrigan said. On the negative side, she said, Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram “saw a dramatic increase in the percentage of dealers who have no trust in the franchise.”
64 percent of dealers surveyed added that they expect Stellantis brands (and other least-trusted brands) to lose value in the next 12 months:
Factors such as swelling days’ supply and stability in management affect dealer sentiments, Kerrigan said. Improving those will increase trust. “I think it can change in 12 months, quite easily,” she said. “Dealers are very focused on one thing, and that is running a profitable, growing operation.”
Stellantis is setting itself up for a big year in 2025 with the full launch of the Charger Daytona EV and ICE-powered Charger Sixpack as well as the all-electric Jeep Wagoneer S. Oh, and it’s in the middle of a search for a new CEO. It’s sort of a make-or-break year for the struggling company. I suppose time will tell if these best-laid plans actually work out.
