SRT and Abarth attack!

The performance divisions of Chrysler and Fiat are set to become more independent from their parent brands in Australia.

Ambitious Fiat Chrysler Group Australia wants Chrysler Group’s SRT (Street & Racing Technology) and Fiat’s Abarth to follow the model charted by Holden Special Vehicle and Ford Performance Vehicles.

That means establishing ‘performance dealer’ networks, a process that should be completed within 12 months.

The effect of that is halo models such as the freshly launched Chrysler 300 SRT8, brand-new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, Fiat 500 Abarth and an expected Punto Abarth won’t be sold by the majority of the group’s dealers.

“You have to have the right dealer network to keep it going long-term,” said FCGA Senior Manger High Performance Vehicles, David Mutton. “Anyone can sell up-front, but once they have been in the market for a while performance cars can be hard to sell.”

The Australian move reflects an international push to differentiate the group’s performance arms from their parent companies. For instance, the new V10 Viper is simply badged as an SRT rather than a Dodge.

FCGA also has plans in the works for Chrysler Group’s Mopar division, which specialises in aftermarket work in a similar vein to Walkinshaw Performance. However, the strategy for Mopar is far less advanced than for SRT and Abarth.

“We want a nominated dealer group that are specialist performance dealers,” confirmed Mr Mutton, who moved to FCGA seven months ago from FPV, where he spent seven years in variety of regional roles.

“In America all dealers are SRT dealers, but in Australia we are taking a specialist dealer approach and we are developing a number of requirements they will have to meet.

“Some of that will be their facilities, some of that will be the PMA (selling area) they are in and it also comes down to the dealership itself. Is it a performance-oriented dealership?”

Mr Mutton said performance dealers – some of which would potentially handle both SRT and Abarth – would be expected to establish close relations with their customers via specialist drive days, SRT and Abarth owners clubs and so on.

He downplayed any issues that might arise from non-performance dealers losing access to SRT and Abarth models.

“From my experience in the performance car side of the business you have to have dealers willing to go that extra mile,” he said. “The dealers have to sell enough of the cars to be able to invest themselves in the whole performance side of the business.

Mr Mutton said FCGA would push for whatever models it could get in right-hand drive to support the performance dealer outlets.

“We are campaigning all the time for right-hand drive,” he said. “There’s the Dodge Challenger and Charger which we can’t get in this generation. But down the track we’ll keep pushing.”

He said the new Viper would not become available.

Abarth is telling FCGA it wants a restricted number of metro dealers, which will settle somewhere between 10 and 20. The total number of Fiat/Alfa metro dealer numbers expands from 16 to 52 from February 1.

FCGA wants to sell Abarth versions of every model it imports, if one is available.

“Abarth has a lot of racing heritage that gives it credibility,” said Mr Mutton.

“It’s a high-performance machine that has been honed on and off the racetrack and in rallying. We are now looking to see how we can educate the Australian public a little more about the Abarth brand because people aren’t aware of it.”

Mr Mutton said he had heard reports that Abarth, which is traditionally associated with Fiat, would expand to tuning Alfa Romeos as well, but he had no confirmation of that.

Mr Mutton said he believed the Mopar brand, which was first established by Chrysler in the 1930s, had a lot of appeal for Chrysler Group customers keen to modify their performance vehicles.

“Mopar offers that factory credibility that you won’t get from an aftermarket supplier locally,” he said.

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