{"id":102930,"date":"2016-01-15T07:36:56","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T12:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=102930"},"modified":"2016-01-15T07:36:56","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T12:36:56","slug":"fca-denies-pressuring-dealers-to-inflate-sales-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2016\/01\/fca-denies-pressuring-dealers-to-inflate-sales-results\/","title":{"rendered":"FCA Denies Pressuring Dealers to Inflate Sales Results"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Fiat Chrysler is denying charges in a lawsuit claiming it offered $20,000 to a dealer to inflate sales reports.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two dealers are claiming that Fiat Chrysler offered them $20,000 to inflate sales reports, making\u00a0 it appear the automaker was performing better than it actually was. The allegations were made in a civil racketeering lawsuit filed against FCA.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges that the automaker paid some dealers to falsify sales reports to “create the appearance that FCA\u2019s performance is better than, in reality, it actually is.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
News You Can Trust!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The suit, which was filed in Illinois federal court, comes from two dealers in Illinois and Florida that are part of the Ed Napleton Automotive Group, which was the 31st<\/sup> largest dealership group in the U.S. in 2014, according to Automotive News.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges that dealership principal\u00a0Edward Napleton was\u00a0asked, but refused, to falsely report sales of 40 vehicles in exchange for $20,000, which\u00a0would have been distributed by Fiat Chrysler\u00a0to the dealership’s\u00a0advertising budget.<\/p>\n

(Marchionne provides road map to FCA\u2019s debt-free future. For more, <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That came after a lower-level employee agreed to falsely report the sale of 16 vehicles without permission of upper management, according to the suit. The dealerships involved are Napleton’s Arlington Heights Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Arlington Heights, Illinois,\u00a0and Napleton’s Northlake Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Lake Park, Florida.<\/p>\n

Fiat Chrysler\u2019s sales have been on a 69-month run of increases in the U.S. and if the sales were inaccurate in any way, it would have a significant impact on the company\u2019s stock price as well as the public\u2019s faith in automakers in general.<\/p>\n

FCA reported U.S. sales of 217,527 units, a 13% increase compared with sales in December 2014 (193,261 units), and the group\u2019s best December sales ever. The company\u2019s 2015 sales were up 7% overall, it reported.<\/p>\n

FCA officials were quick to respond with a statement dismissing the charges, and that it would vigorously defend itself against allegations from \u201ctwo disgruntled dealers.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Reinventing the minivan: Chrysler betting big on the 2017 Pacifica. <\/strong><\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span><\/strong> to see the story.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe lawsuit makes allegations of false sales reporting by FCA US. Notwithstanding numerous\u00a0requests to provide evidence of this alleged activity, the plaintiffs have refused to substantiate\u00a0their claims,\u201d said FCA in the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFCA US carried out an investigation of the facts, and has determined that these\u00a0allegations are baseless and plaintiffs were notified of this fact before they filed suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials at the automaker claim the suit is an effort by dealers to give them preferential treatment, including gaining new stores in the automaker\u2019s dealer network.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have\u00a0consistently failed to perform since at least 2012, and have also used the threats of litigation\u00a0over the last several months in a wrongful attempt to compel FCA US to reserve special\u00a0treatment for them, including the allocation of additional open points in the US FCA network,\u201d the company noted.<\/p>\n

(To see more about the effort to toughen the standards for crash test ratings, <\/strong><\/em><\/strong>Click Here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFCA US will continue to resist these pressures, safeguarding the relationship of trust and\u00a0openness which governs its relationship with its dealers.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two dealers claim FCA offered $20,000 to inflate monthly sales reports, bolstering the company’s appearance. FCA denies the charges. Go to TheDetroitBureau.com for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":75969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102930"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=102930"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=102930"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=102930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}