Stellantis has a new managing director in Australia, but the previous boss’ focus on improving customer service and parts pricing hasn’t been forgotten.
Speaking in 2020, then-Stellantis Australia managing director Kevin Flynn made improving after sales support for the existing Jeep car parc a priority.
“What was clear was as the massive growth happened in 2014, 2015 and around that era, we created a bit of a void in terms of the need to support our customers – from a technical point of view, from a care point of view – we just didn’t have eyes on it,” he told CarExpert.
Speaking with media at the launch of the new Grand Cherokee, a Stellantis spokesperson said the amount of time damaged vehicles are spending off the road “has continued to improve”.
The spokesperson also confirmed Jeep is still reviewing the price of spare or replacement parts – and making them more affordable where appropriate – as promised in 2020.
“The parts pricing Kevin talked about a year and a half or two years ago, that’s still in progress because there’s over a million parts – you could do parts pricing for the rest of your life,” the spokesperson said.
“We’re continuing that process, we’re pleased with where it’s going, the direction it’s going. We haven’t stopped that process at all.”
Jeep enjoyed a meteoric rise in the early 2010s, peaking with 30,408 sales in 2014.
Sales declined from that point onwards, and bottomed out at just 5519 in 2019. Sales have grown since 2019, with 5748 deliveries in 2020, growing to 7762 in 2021, and 6658 in 2022.
To date in 2023 the brand has delivered 1566 cars in Australia – down 27.5 per cent on the same point in 2022, according to VFACTS data.
The rollout of the new five-seat Grand Cherokee should help bridge the gap now it’s on sale, given it’s traditionally been Jeep’s best-seller Down Under.
