Following a few weeks of furious activity at the Fury dealership in Pietermaritzburg, dealer principal Duncan Parsons proudly cut the ribbon to the new Fiat and Jeep side of the business on November 25.
In attendance for the ceremony were head of Mopar SA, Steven Hood; FCA Sales Manager over East Africa Neel Hariram; and FCA’s “team of ladies who get stuff done”, Chairmaine Leesman, Saroj Padayachi, and Deirde du Plessis.
Parsons said he is delighted to add the brands from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to the mix of Honda and Suzuki vehicles and motorbikes and that his small team look forward to a long and profitable relationship with the FCA group.
He thanked his staff and the FCA team for working very hard to make the opening possible. The staff at the Fury dealership have over the years won several awards for selling and servicing Honda and Suzuki cars as well as motorbikes, most recently the Suzuki Automotive’s best practice award for Service for the period October to December 2019.
Hood said FCA valued the partnership with the Pietermartizburg dealership and said buyers can look forward to several new models from the FCA group next year.
“We will be here as members of the family to support you going forward,” Hood said.
The FCA automotive brands are Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia, Ram and Maserati. FCA also owns Mopar automotive parts. New car sales manager Morné Du Plessis, however, told Dealerfloor Fury will only deal in Fiat and Jeep models, for now.
Parsons told Dealerfloor FCA met him halfway in putting up the signage, using a mix of items from the former Jeep dealership in Pietermaritzburg, as well as new signs.
Many of the Fury staff wore black armbands for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Parsons said this was to honour the memory of everyone who had died during COVID-19, but especially the dealership’s late financial manager Sheema Shivnath, as well as his predecessor Gary Stokes, who had helped grow the small dealership as DP from 2012 until his death of cancer.
As we all know, the profit of a motor dealership comes from several areas and each of them needs to be monitored closely if you want to ensure that your dealership performs well.
The bakkie war has intensified with the local launch of Mitsubishi’s next-generation Triton, an evolution in the iconic bakkie’s 46-year legacy.
Unlike in the past, when dealerships primarily waited for customers to come to them, we now take a more proactive approach, bringing our vehicles directly to places where people gather, allowing them to experience the product first-hand, including offering test drives,” says Gerrie van der Kaay, Dealer Principal at Supergroup Dealerships Jetour Midrand.
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If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will.
Bob Hooey
As we all know, the profit of a motor dealership comes from several areas and each of them needs to be monitored closely if you want to ensure that your dealership performs well.
Unlike in the past, when dealerships primarily waited for customers to come to them, we now take a more proactive approach, bringing our vehicles directly to places where people gather, allowing them to experience the product first-hand, including offering test drives,” says Gerrie van der Kaay, Dealer Principal at Supergroup Dealerships Jetour Midrand.
One of the latest Chinese automotive brands to establish itself in South Africa, GAC Motor, is benefitting from the expertise of well-known motor groups in the country, like the BB Motor Group.
