PSA has fired three of its top executives in Germany after a sales promotion that led to thousands of Peugeot 208s being sold at more than 40 percent off their list price.
Peugeot worked with Sixt Leasing and internet provider 1&1 in order to offer the 208 supermini at a monthly leasing rate of as little as 99 euros ($107 in current exchange rates), according to a report from AutoNews.
The offer was so popular that instead of the 300 planned leases, Peugeot leased as many as 5,000 cars under the very generous conditions, which included a full insurance coverage and road tax.
The outcome caused criticism from some of Peugeot’s German dealers not willing to match the offer, as the company most likely took a loss on these deals.
These 5,000 cars are almost twice the amount of new Peugeot 208s sold in Germany in the first quarter. The French supermini sold 2,749 units in the quarter, marking a drop by 13 percent compared to last year’s results.
PSA hastily withdrew the generous offer on Friday and said that three managers -Peugeot Germany’s managing director Benno Gaessler, Peugeot-Citroen’s head of business to business Holger Boehme and the Germany head of the brand’s leasing business, Olivier Ferry- were leaving the company, effective immediately.
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