[julianm]

Just wanted to vent about how difficult it has been to give money to someone to order me the Giulia that I want.

In April, only one dealership out of four in my area would let me test drive.

Once I decided I wanted a Giulia Ti AWD, I read the rumors about 2018 having CarPlay. I really want CarPlay so I tried visiting all the dealerships in my area to see who would be game to help me custom order. One of the salespeople told me "the internet is lying" about CarPlay in 2018 and that "2018 orders won't be taken until August at the earliest" which I knew wasn't true because of how many people had placed orders. Others used various forms of "No, buy something from the lot".

In late May, I found one dealer who had a specialist who was perfectly willing to help me place a custom order... until he wasn't and completely stopped responding to me. I'm guessing they gave their allocation to someone else.

So I went with Cartelligent. The agent was able to find a dealer somewhere else with allocation that placed an order for a MY2018 for me in June. Hooray!

The other week I called up Alfa Romeo customer service to check my VON for order status. They *could not find my order*. The service agent told me she would have to get another team to look into it and they'd call me back in three days.

They never called back. So I tried the online chat service. The service agent told me my car has already been built and it's waiting for a boat. Hooray! But she couldn't give me more details -- I'd have to get VIN from the dealership.

I tell my Cartelligent agent. He gets back to me saying his contacts at the dealership aren't getting back to him. The one he had been working with was on vacation, but he'll get back to me soon.

Today I hear the reason the dealership was being squirrelly with him: Once they discovered the car had been manufactured so soon, they want to charge a noticeable amount more for the car than they originally cited to him. He said he's not sure we should continue to work with that dealership, so he's found another dealership to place another order.

The 2018 better have CarPlay like the order sheet says.

 

[BluGiul]

I think Alfa is the only modern car co that makes it THIS hard to buy a car. Dealers range from acceptable to absolutely horrific, skewing towards the latter.

Yeah yeah there a handful of GREAT dealers, but 5 or 6 out of 100+ is a failure.

I've contacted 12 dealers to find a car, only two were remotely acceptable to deal with. Imagine the worst Ford or Chevy dealership you've ever been to, then take it lower 2 notches. Those are Alfa's brand ambassadors.

Chalk up another failure to Reid Bigend

 

[John_K_348]

Wow, might as well get in touch with Miller Motorcars in CT. I am pretty sure they can get you an allocation and then spend your energy on transportation. The run around from less "Alfisti" dealers is not worth it.

 

[Herrdoktorprofessor]

I think Alfa is the only modern car co that makes it THIS hard to buy a car. Dealers range from acceptable to absolutely horrific, skewing towards the latter.

Yeah yeah there a handful of GREAT dealers, but 5 or 6 out of 100+ is a failure.

I've contacted 12 dealers to find a car, only two were remotely acceptable to deal with. Imagine the worst Ford or Chevy dealership you've ever been to, then take it lower 2 notches. Those are Alfa's brand ambassadors.

Chalk up another failure to Reid Bigend

Half are so used to practically having to give the Ghibli's away they want to squeeze every dollar of margin out of the giulias, the other half are used to dealing with ******** and don't really know how to deal with an upscale clientele used to ordering cars.

 

[BluGiul]

More than half are used to pushing fiats to people who can barely afford a $150 payment/mo.

 

[xgapx]

I can sympathize with your expiriance. The local dealer in Santa Clara California is a Maserati/Alfa dealer. Right now I think they are more interested in selling off their MY17 inventory then ordering a Quadrifoglio for me. Been down to the dealership a few times and it is like they dont know anything about MY18 ordering. I am now seeing if the dealer in Burlingame is more receptive.

 

[johnmontgomery]

Hi Julian M.,
Looks like you are in SF, California and my dealership is in SC but still happy to help you locate an Alfa in your area with my dealership internet tool and filters.
That would be much faster than trying to locate thru the public web sites. I order all the cars here so can answer any specific questions on the process or options, etc...
I just sold a Tri Coat Red Quad that we are sending to CA via carrier next week. We have sold several 4Cs and 2 Quads to CA so far.
You are welcome to call me 864.655.6115 or e mail john at bensonfiat dot com.
Best regards,
John Montgomery

 

[julianm]

Thank you all for commiserating. And than you John for the offer — I'm still working with Cartelligent and the agent believes we have a path to acquiring a car. But if that falls apart again I might take you up on your offer.

 

[julianm]

I can sympathize with your expiriance. The local dealer in Santa Clara California is a Maserati/Alfa dealer. Right now I think they are more interested in selling off their MY17 inventory then ordering a Quadrifoglio for me. Been down to the dealership a few times and it is like they dont know anything about MY18 ordering. I am now seeing if the dealer in Burlingame is more receptive.

Yes, Stevens Creek is the dealer that told me there's no way MY2018 is coming anytime soon and no way it will have CarPlay. They were at least upfront about the fact that they did not want to place any custom orders because they want to sell what they get.

Burlingame is one of the dealers that wouldn't let me test drive ("We sell all of these as soon as we get them in, so we don't need to put miles on them."). I tried to work with them to put an order together, but I gather that they don't really have much allocation—and they certainly weren't willing to give any of the allocation they had to me. They said they might put my order in around the August timeframe. They did promise to keep me updated on their cars as they come in, but have failed to do so.

 

[xgapx]

Yes, Stevens Creek is the dealer that told me there's no way MY2018 is coming anytime soon and no way it will have CarPlay. They were at least upfront about the fact that they did not want to place any custom orders because they want to sell what they get.

Burlingame is one of the dealers that wouldn't let me test drive ("We sell all of these as soon as we get them in, so we don't need to put miles on them."). I tried to work with them to put an order together, but I gather that they don't really have much allocation—and they certainly weren't willing to give any of the allocation they had to me. They said they might put my order in around the August timeframe. They did promise to keep me updated on their cars as they come in, but have failed to do so.

At least I was able to test drive a Giulia at Stevens Creek. Guess I may have to try SF or Walnut Creek.... My girlfriend's boss, current or former Alfa Club President out here, had a bad experience with Burlingame as well. I just don't get these dealers, I had no issues when ordering my 2011 Audi S5 back in 2010.

 

[julianm]

At least I was able to test drive a Giulia at Stevens Creek. Guess I may have to try SF or Walnut Creek.... My girlfriend's boss, current or former Alfa Club President out here, had a bad experience with Burlingame as well. I just don't get these dealers, I had no issues when ordering my 2011 Audi S5 back in 2010.

Re: Burlingame: I once had my Miata NC towed to the Mazda dealership across the street when it got a flat. It wasn't until I drove it off the lot that I realized they had installed mismatched tires (two runflat, two not of otherwise same tire). It took me nearly a month of arguing with them--even having to pull in Mazda NA to officially yell at them--to get them to not charge me to fix it. More related to service departments than sales, but colors my general opinion of the dealerships in that area.

 

[xgapx]

Thank you all for commiserating. And than you John for the offer — I'm still working with Cartelligent and the agent believes we have a path to acquiring a car. But if that falls apart again I might take you up on your offer.

Let me know if Cartelligent works out for you. I may go this route enven though I get the FCA discount through my work.

 

[julianm]

Let me know if Cartelligent works out for you. I may go this route enven though I get the FCA discount through my work.

I gave the Cartelligent agent my FCA affiliate number to get that pricing. I'm basically paying them solely because no dealer near me would custom order for me. So they're doing all the work of trying to order from dealers far away.

Still haven't heard if he's managed to get a VON from this other dealer though, which isn't a good sign. This is pretty crazy.