My dealer went bust !!! But FIAT are still doing my order

[tonywalk]

Originally Posted by Scrogg

I take it that's who you are now buying your car from?

Kudos to Fiat for sorting things out so quickly.

They will be sorting that out with me when the car arrives in the country. She did mention that the zone managers would be handling it.

I am very impressed that they have protected my order and given me loads of info about its status.

A very relieved (and still grinning ),
Tony.

[Caledonia]

A total of 4 Caledonia dealerships are to be taken over by the Cambria Automobile Group which has a dealer group turnover of some £250 million - see the article below re: Cambria

Cambria snaps up Summit Auto Group

The four Fiat delerships are: Preston, Warrington, Blackburn & Oldham

Any orders placed via these 4 dealerships that have been processed with Fiat will mean that any vehicles ordered will be transported as normal to the relevant site

Brand new vehicles cannot be transported at the moment simply because the 4 dealerships need to be set up with new Fiat dealer codes and sales/service/parts accounts etc; and the new group is currently in the process of purchasing used stock currently on the 4 forecourts

Confirmation of the takeover will be given to employees this afternoon and it is hoped that outstanding orders for any vehicles currently on site will start to be delivered to customers as early as Wednesday 23rd Jan

[Mark Elvin]

I think it's disgusting that garages continue to take dposits on vehiles when they know the recivers are coming in, they don't just turn up do they?

[tonywalk]

Just had a call from Oldham Motors part of the Cambria Group that have taken over several of the former Caledonia dealerships.

The group have retained all Caledonia's orders. At least I've got a dealer to talk to now.

Car is in light variability and is due in the UK on 10/3 Can't understand why it is behind some of the peeps who ordered later.

Ah well, patience is a virtue people say. Well they haven't been waiting for a Fiat 500!

Regards,
Tony.

[tonywalk]

Just spotted Tom's post where his week 7 build is also due in on the 10th March.Wonder why mine hasn't been "fixed for production" yet ?

(I've got the order number if you can double check it Scrogg)

Cheers,
Tony.

[Scrogg]

Originally Posted by tonywalk

Just spotted Tom's post where his week 7 build is also due in on the 10th March.Wonder why mine hasn't been "fixed for production" yet ?

Seadragon's is also a Week 7, but his has not moved to fixed yet.

Perhaps the delayed options are starting to take effect?

Originally Posted by tonywalk

(I've got the order number if you can double check it Scrogg)

I don't think I can, I think only the dealership that has ordered the car can check it.

PM me the number anyway, and I'll see if I can check it tomorrow.

[Suasexed]

I hope it is down to the delayed options... I don't see why mine should have gone to fixed when others with the same build week are still light variability At least it's guaranteed to go into production etc etc

Oh Scrogg - you know you were saying I was taking too long deciding over fog lights... well, when I came to see last Thursday it was still labelled as Heavy Variabilty. Yet 4 days later it's fixed. How long would they usually stay as Light Variability?

[Scrogg]

Originally Posted by Suasexed

when I came to see last Thursday it was still labelled as Heavy Variabilty.

Was it? I thought it was at 13 last week?

Originally Posted by Suasexed

How long would they usually stay as Light Variability?

There is no such thing as 'usually' with 500 orders. With other models Status 13 is about 4 weeks before the car is built and Status 16 about 2 weeks before.

Fiat have not experienced this level of demand vs production capacity before, so I'm guessing the orders without delayed options (such as yours) are moving through the system much more quickly, replacing orders that are affected that would otherwise have been built earlier, to get as many cars as possible built as quickly as possible.

[Suasexed]

Originally Posted by Scrogg

Was it? I thought it was at 13 last week?

Nope, it was definitely still marked as 'Heavy Variability'. That's why we figured there was 'no rush' to decide on the foglights and that there would be at least another week to decide on them. I'm not too bothered about the fogs though, as you know I was in two minds, I think I prefer the front of the car without... It was the alloys I was more gutted about

[Scrogg]

It looks as though Caledonia are not the only FIAT dealership/group to go out of business lately.

Because my group is expanding our FIAT representation from 1st March (adding Newport and Cardiff) we're pretty high on FIAT's favourites list at the moment. So much so that when an undisclosed dealership closed down last month we were offered five Status 16 Week 7 Pops that had been allocated to them, and a further twenty five units for March

As the old saying goes, their loss is our gain!