Recently, legal cases for Stellantis have been raining down as if from the sky. The owners of Gold Coast Alfa Romeo and Gold Coast Maserati dealerships in Great Neck, New York, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Nassau County on July 23. The dealers accuse Stellantis and the car manufacturers in question of preventing the sale of the dealerships for “unjustified and pretextual reasons”. A legal dispute between the parties had already occurred in the past.
New York dealerships sue Stellantis and Maserati: here’s what happened
The previous lawsuit, still ongoing, accused Fiat Chrysler Automobiles of involvement in illegal practices. The accusations include unjustified reductions in wholesale prices, biased customer satisfaction parameters, discriminatory vehicle allocations, and failure to reimburse dealerships for warranty repairs at the agreed retail rate. The UAW president also spoke about price changes a few days ago, harshly attacking Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, for inflating car prices with the sole excuse of increasing profits.
Now, Gold Coast claims that Stellantis and Maserati have devalued the dealerships after years of “mismanagement”. Furthermore, it points out that due to poor sales of Stellantis brands, dealerships are struggling to attract new buyers. This is not the first case mentioning problems with Stellantis brand vehicles in the United States. In recent months, several dealerships in the country have expressed their concerns following dozens of resignations by Stellantis executives and high vehicle prices that do not attract customers. For this reason, several Stellantis cars, including the Fiat 500e and the Dodge Hornet, are among the slowest-selling in the United States.
Recent financial reports indicate that Maserati recorded an adjusted operating loss of $90 million, about 82 million euros, in the first six months of 2024. Sales amounted to only 6,500 vehicles, a decline of over 50%. According to the complaint, due to the Group’s mismanagement, several dealers in the United States have given up their franchises due to lack of profitability.
Interested in selling the dealerships, Gold Coast claims to have found a potential buyer, Slanelli LLC. However, Stellantis and Maserati allegedly first did not respond to the request within the established 60 days and subsequently rejected it citing a “lack of experience as a retail dealer”. Furthermore, they questioned the intentions of the potential buyer citing a previous felony conviction. According to Gold Coast owners, Stellantis allegedly attempted to prevent the sale of the dealerships to insert a third-party buyer proposed by the Group itself. At the moment, both Stellantis and Maserati have chosen not to comment on the matter.