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.
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“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.”
