MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Fiat-Chrysler faces allegations of encouraging dealers to inflate monthly sales
The lawsuit claims an FCA official offered the president of Napleton $20,000 in exchange for falsely reporting the sales of 40 new vehicles. Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is denying allegations that it encouraged dealers to inflate monthly sales. The car company is being sued by a US dealer who says it encouraged dealerships to lie about monthly car sales.
FCA said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit, but that the “claim is without merit”. FCA's stock price fell 5% in New York and 7% in Milan on Thursday.
The dealer, Napleton Automotive Group, accused FCA of racketeering and fraud.
The lawsuit claims an FCA official offered the president of Napleton $20,000 in exchange for falsely reporting the sales of 40 new vehicles. The suit also alleges FCA sales were reported at the end of the month and then backed out of the next day in order to avoid starting the warranty timetable.
Napleton said FCA's practices harmed its dealerships in Illinois and Florida.
On 5 January, FCA reported 2.2 million cars were sold in 2015, a 7% increase in sales from 2014, that the company said was driven by demand for Chrysler Jeeps. The lawsuit said: “FCA has every reason to continue to be opaque about this issue as it would not be helpful for the truth to come to light at the same time as FCA may be pursuing mergers and other business opportunities.”
FCA's chief executive Sergio Marchionne said last year he supported consolidation in the car industry. He has encouraged General Motors to consider a merger with Fiat Chrysler.
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Read all comments“He has encouraged General Motors to consider a merger with Fiat Chrysler”
Jan 15th, 2016 - 06:03 pm 0The Jeep products are currently standing in the Top four spots in the JD Powers WORST product tables.
In other words the worst cars on the US market in terms of customer 'satisfaction'.
And now this idiot want GM to pucker up and join the club. Doesn't GM have enough troubles of it's own?
I don't see how GM could benefit. They are doing better now by streamlining, replacing several diverse regional platforms with fewer global ones
Jan 16th, 2016 - 04:17 am 0@ 2 Troy Tempest
Jan 16th, 2016 - 12:50 pm 0They also need to update their engines in SA, even late new models such as the “Spin” (stupid name fro a car) have the old 1.8 normally aspirated SOHC 8 valve engines!
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