QUESTION ON BERTONE DEMISE

eflexter

eflexter

Eddie Flexter
I test-drove a brand new X1/9 back in '86. I loved the car. However the dealer hated it. It was priced at a very low $6500. He had about 10 of them on the lot. One of the cars had bald tires on the back. The salesman said they were doing donuts in the parking lot with it. The car only had 300 miles on the odometer. The salesman continued on and on about what a piece of crap the car was.

However I loved the car, but I expected it to explode at any second based on the sales treatment I was getting. I was actually surprised to find the A/C worked and amazed that I made it back to the lot without breaking down.

My current '86 came with the original paperwork and window sticker, and the price was over $11000.

Question: One of the books on the history of the X1/9 said that there was a problem with dealerships "UNDER-PRICING" the cars. And my experience was exactly as though they were trying NOT to sell the car. WHAT WAS GOING ON??? Why would a dealer be encouraged to lose money on a car. Tax purposes? :eyepop:
 
good post but...

the words "demise" and "Bertone" don't really go together, (at least YET) thankfully :)

Bertone is still around and signed a deal with Fiat to design and build Chrysler models at their factory.

The official Bertone website is here: http://www.bertone.it/
 
!

When I say Bertone, I mean the X1/9, which was called a "Bertone" in the late 80's.

And I really didn't think they were doing donuts, I figured they just stole the tires off of it. But why would they do that????

Seems like this dealer was a Pontiac/Fiat dealer. Also seems like they went out of business not too long after. Wish I'd bought that car!!
 
Why would they do that?
Salesman did better selling something else? That's the only reason I can think of. I work retail sales (appliances) on the side and as business, we don't care what they buy really, just THAT they buy. Margin is roughly the same across the board so it doesn't really matter, to the business. As a salesman it can often matter to me personally on the "kick back" side of things, I can sell a $2,000 refrigerator and get nothing or $200 depending on the manufacturer kickbacks to the sales people at the time.
Maybe the Fiat side of the dealership was something they were compelled to do, didn't really want to, were dragged into it and therefore it showed on the sales side, no idea. I never discourage a customer from buying anything unless I really think there is something better for them, I'll talk 'em "over" or "up". Never completely "off'. And I never, ever lie.
 
Pontiac and Fiat Dealer?

There are a lot of people out there that go one way or the other.

USA made or Europe made but not both. Take a Fiat to a Pro USA car dealer and they will tell you it is junk. Let us face the fact that the Fiero was built to compete with the X1/9 and we know where that ended up. It sounds like in house fighting and the writting on the wall. Fiat was moving out, the dealer saw no future perks and wanted to move on. As for doing donunts, well pull the steering hard over to the lock step on the gas and 1 wheel will break free, wear out a set of tires, well....


TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
 
I think the idea of a stand alone Bertone Pinninfarina distribution was ill fated from the beginning. They never solved the old Fiat dealer issues. They mostly ended up with second tier dealers, trying to sell these cars with almost no service support. I too looked at some heavliy discounted cars at a local "dealer" I think they had about 5 cars, 2 124 Spiders and 3 X19s, I think the price was $7k to $5.5K it was probably 87 or 88? As a Fiat lover it was tempting but the cars looked almost used! I can imagine the poor salesman who saw these cars so discounted he had no room for any his normal profit. Plus the economy was kinda of shakey as I remeber, so people weren't buying, Your average car sales guy at these type of dealers not being the brightest lights in a bunch, I could see them holding the cars in contempt and blaming them for the situation. Over revving the engine, burning the tires, grinding the gears would be par for the course.
 
My memory is fuzzy

but I seem to recall the Fiat Factory urging dealerships to put their weight behind the 128 Coupe as it was both a "proper" Fiat and made them more money than the X1/9.

Thoughts?
 
Most things in the new car business do not make sense. Many new cars today are built in such a way that the manufacturer loses money on every sale. What? What other industry does that happen. I say stop building them--but they can't because then they lose more money as they have to pay the union workers not work. As far as the dealer--99% of salesmen are idiots. I always know 30 times as much info as they do.

Finally--as it got past 1987--it was highly unlikely that there were any Fiat kickbacks going to the dealer. So at this point--the cars were just sitting on their lots--all they needed to do at that point was to move them. Let me explain. No 2 dealers pay the same for a car--it is like wal-mart and your local hardware store. They both sell the same hammer--but wal-mart sells the hammers for less than the hardware store buys them--not very fair. You will notice that some dealers still have a few of last year's models when summer rolls around. By that time--there are no manufacturer's incentives to the dealer or the customer to buy that car. It is usually cheaper to buy the current year car with all of the discounts. It is crazy--but it is true. The typical current sticker on a Dodge 1500 4wd truck is around 32k. With incentives--that truck can be had for about 21k to 23k. The dealer probably originally paid around 28k or 29k for it. What happens is the manufacturer gives the buyer a 4000 rebate, the dealer a 3000 incentive to buy it, and the dealer shrinks his margin a little. On last year's model--he is stuck selling it for 28k and anything less than that is a loss.

It is a strange business.

As for the dealer selling his last handful of Fiats for $6000 a piece??? He just wanted to get rid of them so he get his flooring (financing from the bank for his inventory) back so he could go buy more Pontiacs and actually make money on sales and service.

By the way--a new car dealer makes his money in this order:
1. F & I -- Finance and Insurance. They make 100% profit on selling you financing, lifetime oil changes and tires, paint protection etc. A typical dealer averages $1,000 per new car sold.
2. Used car sales. Dealers get people to give them their old cars at ridiculously low amounts.
3. Full paying service. Spend $900 at the dealer and chances are he just made $600 or more off of you.
4. New car sales. High-volume dealers make $500 per car. BMW dealers make $3000 to $6000 per car--before expenses.
5. Warranty work. Manufacturers are smart to #3 above and limit how much they pay for all work.

So--you see--selling new cars is only #4 on the list.
 
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