The electric car? “It represents 3% of dealership sales.” And you can’t see one in the workshop and body shop. The production crisis in Mirafiori is causing great difficulty not only for related companies but also for those who sell and repair cars. The businesses we all go to, i.e. the workshops, body shops and dealerships which are complaining of a sharp drop in work and sales.
GOODBYE TO THE FIAT BRAND
A climate of profound uncertainty reigns, so much so that some authorized workshops, who preferred to remain anonymous, are thinking of doing without the Fiat and Stellantis brand which costs thousands of euros. “It’s clear that authorized workshops have become inconvenient because they create competition with the parent company” explains Christian Ventrice, owner of Officina Ventrice Snc in Villastellone, who decided years ago to say goodbye to the Ford brand. The fear is also that of losing one’s job due to the creation of the recycling hub in Mirafiori. “When the market share is reduced – underlines Ventrice – the biggest fish risks taking everything. Stellantis won’t be able to manage everything but the work will be reduced for us”.
SALES DROP BUT PRICES INCREASE
Car dealerships represent the actual thermometer of the development of the car in the area. But with the drop in production at Mirafiori, sales are also dropping dramatically. “The best-selling cars are the Panda and the 500 hybrid, but in Turin the volumes have significantly reduced compared to the pastwe go hand in hand with the decline in production” explains Luca Di Tanno of Auto-ingros. However, prices have increased. “You work with one higher average margin ranging from 10 to 25% more due to the increase in car prices, but the purchasing power of buyers has been reduced“. And used cars? “They follow the prices of new ones, so they have suffered the same increases.”
USED OVERCOMES NEW
Spazio Group is one of the major dealers of Stellantis cars, in direct line with Mirafiori, but here too the electric 500 does not take off. On the contrary. “We don’t reach 3% of electric vehicle saleswhile we are at 7%-10% for the hybrid” he explains Carlo Alberto Jura, vice president of Federauto and president of the Spazio Group dealership in Turin. “In this period – he adds – the sale of used cars has exceeded that of new ones, while 5 years ago the proportion was 70% for new and 30% for used cars. This means that the car fleet is aging considerably. We also sell many diesel vehicles, those that are left, such as Jeep and Alfa Romeo.” With all due respect to the green transition. “It is necessary – underlines the vice-president of Federauto – that the government unlocks this situation of uncertainty by providing incentives for the purchase of electric cars. Also because sales to Stellantis employees have collapsed and we are very sorry to hear that the redundancy fund continues and the productions can be moved elsewhere”.
BODYWORKS IN CRISIS: ORIGINAL SPARE PARTS MISSING
Body shops are also affected by the Mirafiori crisis. “Work has dropped by 50%, especially in the last year, because people have become impoverished and the Mirafiori crisis is a disaster for us” underlines Livio Bottasso, owner of the Lesna body shop, founded 50 years ago in via Monginevro. “Once upon a time – he recalls – you could easily find spare parts for Fiat, Alfa and Lancia cars because they were produced here, but now they are practically impossible to find or you have to wait for them for months because they are produced who knows where. Electric 500s are produced in Turin, it’s a shame that in all these years they have never repaired one“.
