[Cape Alfa]

A friend and I flew up to JHB this past weekend to attend the Ferrari Club Concurs event at Monte Casino. Said friend is a Ferrari collector and owns a few examples, I mention that only for context.

Walking onto the piazza I was greeted by a Squadro Corsa, a 4C Spider, an Abarth. As I had not seen any of these cars in CT friend and I wondered up to have a look at them and got chatting to one of the sales people, a very nice guy and we mentioned we were in JHB for the Ferrari event and had a car entered. One would at this point think the sales person would start to try and sell the 4C spider as in front of him he had the cars target market. Not much attempt was made, no "sir I could arrange a test drive at one of our Cape Town dealers", granted it was late in the day and he looked tired so I am prepared to forgive this.

What cannot be excused is absolutely diabolically bad and pathetic "brochure" which was presented to us. Nothing more than sheets of white paper stapled together, poor ink jet picture which are so bad in quality due to pathetic resolution. How on earth do you expect customers to spend R500+ on cars when you present them with a "brochure" of this appalling quality, no pictures of the interior and there was only one picture per car in some cases the picture is so hazy you cannot even make out the car.

Extremely disappointing and I seem to recall there being someone from Alfa SA on this forum, I would be interested in a response.

With this level of marketing I am hardly surprised the cars aren't selling.

 

[italover]

We harped and raved about Alfa's dismal, pathetic marketing of Alfa , on this forum, before. One wonders if their marketing department really exists! Very disappointing. Recent stats have revealed that more Ferraris than Alfas have been sold in a month in SA! Now, shouldn't THAT set alarm bells ringing with the head honchos at Fiat SA?

 

[Cape Alfa]

We harped and raved about Alfa's dismal, pathetic marketing of Alfa , on this forum, before. One wonders if their marketing department really exists! Very disappointing. Recent stats have revealed that more Ferraris than Alfas have been sold in a month in SA! Now, shouldn't THAT set alarm bells ringing with the head honchos at Fiat SA?

I am still totally dismayed at how pathetic this brochure is, here was a captive potential customer and this is what gets handed over.

 

[Adrien97]

I've walked around at the Hyde Park and Fourways branches and nobody has ever tried to sell me a car there - Fourways didn't even have an Alfa on display!

Going to Honda, Ford, Kia and Toyota they call went out of their way to sell me a car. The sales team at Alfa are rather poor.

To make things worse, I waited over 30 minutes at the counter of the Fourways branch in order to get a quote... Never going there again . I'd rather drive an extra 20 minutes to get a decent parts department at Hyde Park


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[Avi]

I was at monte on sunday morning and i knew more about the 4c spider and SC than most of the guys there.

 

[Giorget2]

Pathetic.

Promises come to naught yet again.

I am still convinced the head office guys don't take things seriously. They just want to sell Jeeps.

 

[Cape Alfa]

My days are condensed with large amounts of work but I don't think I am going to let this go, simply because NEVER have I seen such a pathetic brochure, the sales guy wasn't that clued up but I can forgive that to an extent because I am sure by 16:30 it has been a long day but even then, offer a test drive in CT.

Will try take some pictures of this brochure and see if I can post them here for all to see.

I actually really like the SC, am contemplating getting one BUT this pathetic marketing really puts me off because if this the level of effort put into selling after the car then what sort of effort can one expect from a service point of view.

 

[Cape Alfa]

As an aside I see the SC takes a total walloping in depreciation, basically a brand new one for sale here I CT for R370. It has all of 1000 kms on the clock....

 

[Sling]

I actually really like the SC, am contemplating getting one BUT this pathetic marketing really puts me off because if this the level of effort put into selling after the car then what sort of effort can one expect from a service point of view.

On my way home last night i was stuck in traffic next to a white SC without number plates. The exhaust note - even at idle - is pretty awesome - I like it a lot.

This morning I dropped the Mito at Cargo Motors Edenvale for its service and I saw a white 4C Spider and a black SC on the showroom floor.

I'm happy with Cargo - I always get good service from them.

 

[Ian Lusso]

Cape Alfa, I have ranted and gone mad at the actions of sales people before. Despite having bought 3 Alfas and a Fiat over the past 4/5 years, 3 of the vehicles being brand new, whenever I went to look at the 4C, the sales people walked me up to the car then walked away. I found myself standing there with nobody to answer my questions. I never knew if I could touch the car or if I was only allowed to look. This happened on numerous occasions at Sandown Motors, Century City.

By the way, they have Abarths, 4C Spiders and Squadra Corse's on their floor. Once again, don't expect much from their sales staff.

 

[Giorget2]

I never knew if I could touch the car or if I was only allowed to look. This happened on numerous occasions at Sandown Motors, Century City.

Maybe this is not a question that comes up in the salespeople's minds? Maybe they're all the kind of people who just touch anyone's car whenever they like, leaving their fingermarks on the paint and windows? So they can't imagine anyone ever needing to ask before touching?

 

[Cape Alfa]

Cape Alfa, I have ranted and gone mad at the actions of sales people before. Despite having bought 3 Alfas and a Fiat over the past 4/5 years, 3 of the vehicles being brand new, whenever I went to look at the 4C, the sales people walked me up to the car then walked away. I found myself standing there with nobody to answer my questions. I never knew if I could touch the car or if I was only allowed to look. This happened on numerous occasions at Sandown Motors, Century City.

By the way, they have Abarths, 4C Spiders and Squadra Corse's on their floor. Once again, don't expect much from their sales staff.

Maybe if I rock up there in a 599 GTO the sales staff may be helpful. Or not.

 

[Jchan11hk]

CapeAlfa, they will probably ask you what is a GTO? I was in CT two weeks ago, went to the Alfa next to Cavendish. Only saw one 4C spider. No one said anything to neither my dad nor myself. As soon as we started to look at the Jeep Grand Cherokee. One sales person started to walk towards us. That tells me a lot. They are there not to sell Alfa but Jeep.

 

[Giorget2]

CapeAlfa, they will probably ask you what is a GTO?

It's a Grand Therokee Owesome car.

 

[Cape Alfa]

At the moment I am throwing around three ideas in my mind.

Gulietta SC
Astra OPC
Chevy Lumina.

The last one falls more into the toy category, just need to decide if I need a daily or a fun toy, the first two can probably do the cross over better and honestly resale on the G SC is so poor I'd need to keep that for years, not sure how reliable it will be long term.

A better brochure may have made number 1 more attractive, still I like being different and each of the above ticks that box to some extent.

 

[El 4 Romeo]

Can we see pics of the brochure, please?

 

[Giorget2]

Just for interest's sake. It doesn't cost a lot to print something fairly nice-looking - even in small batches.

Even if they printed only 300 or so nice-looking brochures on glossy paper, the printing cost per brochure wouldn't be more than R15 per brochure, if that much.
Of course you have to pay a designer to do the layout design, but if FCA doesn't have a competent in-house designer, outsourcing the work would also not cost much.

 

[Cape Alfa]

Can we see pics of the brochure, please?

Taken some pictures of it, sadly my Google Nexus makes the brochure look a heck of a lot better than it actually looks.

Will post the pictures up soon.

 

[Perreby_83]

New CEO of FCASA is a I-tye and not a Yankee, so perhaps AR will receive more attention in SA now.

At this point Chatz knows more than head office in SA. Sad but true.

All we know is:

Abarth Spider 124 coming in September. At a price that would make Chuck Norris cry... And if that comes in at expected price, Giulia will NEVER meet ARSA's target price of R1.25mil

 

[Master Paul]

like i said on FB 700+ mark for the 124.. will rather get the mx