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ModdedJK

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Sources:
https://www.autonews.com/dealers/jeep-focused-showrooms-can-fuel-brand-growth-ceo-says
https://www.carscoops.com/2022/05/jeep-is-confident-dedicated-showrooms-will-help-to-boost-sales/


Jeep Is Confident Dedicated Showrooms Will Help It Boost Sales
Jeep Gladiator Dedicated Jeep Showrooms Are Coming Jeep-dealer-2_1


May 4, 2022

Jeep’s dealerships across the United States will undergo quite a transformation over the coming two years as the automaker encourages dealers to establish dedicated showrooms to attract additional customers.

One dealership that has already established a Jeep-centered showroom is LaFontaine Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Fenton in Michigan. This dealer has put a vintage Jeep Wagoneer on display and has also established a small area with Jeep shirts, hats, and coffee mugs.

Speaking with Auto News, the store’s general manager Paul Jordan said the dealer wanted to make Jeep customers feel like they’re in a dedicated Jeep store, rather than one with other Stellantis brands. As such, they have a Gladiator on display that’s loaded with Mopar accessories and available for test drives. Plans are also in place to update the dealership floor to accommodate the Grand Wagoneer.

“Just because you build a showroom doesn’t mean it’s going to work,” Jordan commented. “You have to have the culture of your employees match the showroom. That’s what the difference is — not the showroom — the culture of your staff.”​

Jeep chief executive Christian Meunier believes the dedicated showrooms will help dealerships capture some of the growth potential of the Jeep brand while also supporting its range of new vehicles.

“Because of the product plan and the growth opportunity for Jeep in North America in the next five years, the dealers are going to be, I think, very much engaged,” Meunier told Auto News. “So we need to show the dealers our future a little bit more so that they can have that vision more well defined. We have some work to do to convince them a little bit more about that, but this is the future. Some don’t realize the potential that exists. I think very soon they will see their peers being very successful.”​

Chairman of the Stellantis National Dealer Council and owner of the Daytona Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram dealer, Randy Dye, says some dealers are already reaping the rewards of establishing dedicated showrooms.

“I’ve listened to some of the guys that have done it, that got ahead of it, and they’ve indicated while they were not real sure how successful it was going to be as they made the decision to do it, [it] has been successful once it got done,” he said. “The customers really appreciate their own space, and the volume increases.”​
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Labswine

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Hopefully they'll get some sales people and mechanics who sleep, eat, and breath Jeep who know of which they speak when courting a potential customer. That's the biggest problem most dealerships have is most of the staff know very little of what they're supposed to be selling, and that leaves many dissatisfied customers.
 

Undecided

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The dealership I go to is building it's own stand alone Jeep store/dealer. It's across the street but supposed to have it's own service and 100% Jeep. Supposed to be open by end of this year.

I like the idea
 

jac04

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Hopefully they'll get some sales people and mechanics who sleep, eat, and breath Jeep who know of which they speak when courting a potential customer. That's the biggest problem most dealerships have is most of the staff know very little of what they're supposed to be selling, and that leaves many dissatisfied customers.
Same is true of most dealers. IMO, the dealer really doesn't care too much or even consider lack of product knowledge to be a real problem. Most buyers are not "enthusiasts", so the fact that the salespeople don't know about things like gear ratios, lockers, and approach angles is almost irrelevant. It is important that the salespeople know about infotainment stuff, because that's what most people interface with and are interested in. When buying my JT, I was actually impressed by the level of knowledge of the "tech" person who went through all the infotainment stuff.

Either way, I like the idea of the Jeep-only showroom as well. People seem to be drawn to the Jeep lifestyle/experience, so this should help them with sales.
 

JET_83

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I’m confused, never thought Jeep had issues selling
 

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Hmm. I'm going to guess many dealers are going to hate this idea because it creates Us vs. Them. Salespeople will likely rotate; hiring Jeep-exclusive salespeople who are enthusiasts mean they'll have to pay them more for the specialized knowledge. Not going to happen in a majority of dealers.

If anything, it'll be all hat, no cattle. Or all throttle, no traction.

It has to be a culture shift, and the driving force behind that means that eventually there will be 3 distinct showrooms - C/D, Ram, and Jeep. You can't do one without doing the rest.

If the showroom is more like an REI, I wouldn't mind that.

If everyone is dressed in fleece and Kuhl pants... maybe not. lol

On the topic of dealerships, Toyota of Kirkland is ridiculous. They have a huge showroom with about 40 cubicles on the sales floor, mostly empty, and 6-8 salespeople hovering around the front counter. I've never seen anything like that in a dealership.
 

sfurash

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Who goes too a dealership to buy a car anymore, you do it all online and go in to pick it up.
I only care that the service guys are good after the sale I don't care if they are servicing a dodge or ram or jeep in the next bay. This seems to me to be a waste of money.
As an fyi a lack of showrooms are hurting Tesla
 

booneja

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Love this idea, hopefully local dealers near me get this idea and run with it, the de3alrer I normally go to is huge on jeeps and Ram's, not much else for sales, having it dedicated to all things jeep including performance and aftermarket mods would be great, not much options other than online on Vancouver Island for that sort of thing
 

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How very Volkswagen of them....

That being said I think it is a great idea, car brands always have better success when they build a community around the product, Jeep seems to have already done that, adding Showrooms that focus on that community and heritage will help it continue to grow.
 

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ShadowsPapa

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Who goes too a dealership to buy a car anymore, you do it all online and go in to pick it up.
I only care that the service guys are good after the sale I don't care if they are servicing a dodge or ram or jeep in the next bay. This seems to me to be a waste of money.
As an fyi a lack of showrooms are hurting Tesla
You would be very surprised. It's amazing how many buy off the lot and go through dealerships.
Frankly, other than those offering "forum sponsor discounts", I can get a better deal on the DIFFERENCE between trade and new talking to people.
Ordering online is take it or leave it, no back and forth and when you get a hell of a deal on the new one, the trade value is usually lowered to account for it. I've show than with my recent interaction with dealers online.
If all you want is a new vehicle, you can order it online and be done. But I ended up ordering from a brick and mortar after trying all of the online stuff because in the end it's more convenient - I keep my truck and can take off the mods as I can, and I'm not without my truck for even a day.

I have also found that some shops seem to bend over backwards a bit more if you have been a good buying customer in the past, or in one case, a mistake was made by another dealership on an order, I told the closer dealer about it - and they took care of a $150 process for free.

I also want to test drive - if all dealerships go away and all there is is online, you lose some of the control. Loss of human interaction is one thing that's undoing the world right now.
I'm glad I won't be around in 50 years to see the final results.
 

KohalaHutch

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It would be cool if they set up a driveable obstacle course and make something like your favorite off road shop with tons of expensive toys to ogle. The REI flagship store in Denver comes to mind.
 

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It would be cool if they set up a driveable obstacle course and make something like your favorite off road shop with tons of expensive toys to ogle. The REI flagship store in Denver comes to mind.
You know, I'm recalling when my local Jeep dealer opened several years ago, it had a small off road course. This course even had one of those tilt ramps. I thought it was cool, but it didn't last long. It's been gone for a long time. Maybe it was a liability issue?
 

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It would be cool if they set up a driveable obstacle course and make something like your favorite off road shop with tons of expensive toys to ogle. The REI flagship store in Denver comes to mind.
that actually exists at my dealer now, it's kinda cool but there is a part JT's can not go on without a lift as it's too high of an angle up and down. Was built in the before time of JT's.

I've asked, the new Jeep only store across the street will not get it's own separate/new one though
:(

Chatting with them, the word is Stellatis see's Jeep as it's core brand and what it wants to own and push in the USA. Gives the impression that Chrysler/Dodge/Ram in the current branding may, MAY, in years come be gone/sold.
 

Ted Striker

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A CJDR dealership here in Houston just opened up their dedicated Jeep only showroom/building a few months ago. They've already had two large Jeep gatherings (600 Jeeps a few weekends ago) with prizes, activities, free food, etc. They're going all in on selling the experience.

www.gillmanjeep.com
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