Chrysler Fined $955,000 By California DMV
The California Department of Motor Vehicles slapped Chrysler this month to the tune of $955,000 in fines.
“We hope other manufacturers will see what happened in this case and think twice about doing something similar,” said Brian Moss, director of government affairs for the California New Car Dealers Association, in an interview with Automotive News.
The DMV enforced penalties against Chrysler after they opened Motor Village, a downtown Los Angeles showroom. Local dealers complained, saying it was unfair for a manufacturer-owned store to be located less than 10 miles from new car showrooms selling the same vehicles. The California New Car Dealers Association filed the complaint with the DMV in March and after the better part of a year, the issue is settled.
Motor Village, which was a multi-million dollar effort by Chrysler to improve its market share in California, was sold to New Century Automotive Group of Los Angeles at the end of last month.
The high-profile 189,000-square-foot dealership opened last January with space divided into two stores: one for Fiat and the other to be shared between Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler.
It isn’t entirely clear what the future of the dealership will be, but Peter Grady, Chrysler vice president of network development and fleet, said in a statement that they “were looking for a dealer who would carry on our vision of Motor Village as a showcase for our brands and a dealer committed to experimenting with new retail techniques and heightened levels of customer care.”
[Source: Automotive News]
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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