One less JEEP dEElership
 

I recently got an email from Stellantis advising that a Jeep dealer that once serviced my JKU is dropping the Jeep product and associated servicing, but appears to be retaining RAM trucks (which is not surprising). I wonder ... if they might be taking on the Wagoneer nameplate in Jeep's place, somewhere in the future?

This means that there is now a wide territory that remains uncovered by Jeep service between Orange and Parramatta. A car can be bought anywhere, but service is especially important with today's modern cars because of all the sensors, and tech overload. There used to be a dealer in Bathurst. In fact, when I bought my XJ in 1995, there were a lot of Jeep dealers everywhere, small and large. There was even one in Broken Hill! Back then, anyone could service a 4.0L I6 engine bay.

That sort of thing doesn't help those Dealers that remain to sell the product. It just means more people will shy away from buying a new Jeep as to have the regular services carried out becomes inconvenient and costly.

I dont understand why we dont have lots of jeep certified service places. There is a Mercedese service place in Adelaide (Frank Wand) not selling new cars. Probably the best Mercedes service place in SA. Why dont FCA have similar for their cars?
Local to here, the jeep dealer has heaps of admin in their service department, but its hard to find a mechanic & he probably only speaks limited English! I guess its a case of if you pay peanuts, you know what you get!

Any mechanical workshop it seems is struggling to find a half decent mechanic just to turn up for work every day!
My brother has a transmission repair business in Perth, he pays huge money just to keep the blokes he currently has...he can't pass on all those increases in operating costs either to his customers or he will lose business being many people will look for cheap workshops...even accepting shoddy workmanship at lower cost.

Little wonder the wait is weeks when you want to get work done, as there are just no workers...I really don't know what the future holds for any mechanical business...

A shortage of competent personnel that will actually turn up for work is not limited to the motor trades it is affecting most skills based industries. I am aware of many employers complaining that trying to train apprentices can be a futile task as many won’t bother to attend their theory classes and a lot have very poor work ethics but high expectations of remuneration.

Layback, one would think the service model that you have proposed is doable. For example, Ineos was rumored to adopt that model for their Grenadier. Bosch automotive was a name that kept coming up as a service provider. But my understanding is that Ineos ultimately went the megadealer route, at least in this market.

When Jeep stormed our shores again in 1994, there was only "Chrysler" Jeep in small dealer lots that included a usually modest but competent service department. Hyundai and other makes crept into the lots gradually creating megadealers bringing economies of scale for parts and service.

The bottom line is that these service departments probably survive on very slim margins without help from sales.

Sales is the other side of the equation. People do want Jeeps, but the ones that can afford it at today's climbing interest rates are the cashed up inner city hordes that must have large screens and dashboard gadgets. The price of a JLU is $75-85k which is a long way off what I paid for my new JKU in 2016. If I had waited until now, I would be buying the most basic configured 4x4 Ranger as a backup for my preupdate XJ which remains in active use.