Imminent culling of California dealers

[Ocean Wanderer]

Does anyone have any further information on the proposed plans to reduce the number of UK California dealers to ten? Do we know when this is likely to happen? Surely this is going to result in horrendous waiting times for warranty work!

 

[ParachuteMan]

Does anyone have any further information on the proposed plans to reduce the number of UK California dealers to ten? Do we know when this is likely to happen? Surely this is going to result in horrendous waiting times for warranty work!

Spoke with Manchester VW CV Centre last week at van's 1st service. ,They will no longer be selling the new T7 "Lifestyle" Californias. These will be sold by the 10 selected dealers. However, service and warranty work by Manchester will NOT be affected. They will continue to provide both for all existing Calis.

 

[pluc99]

Does anyone have any ideas how the 10 were chosen?

 

[lohr500]

I'm guessing based on a combination of regional location and previous sales volumes.
Drive the Deal offers supplied via Eurovans will have distorted their numbers but that may have been taken into consideration.

I wonder though if they will move sales over to the passenger car side of the VW business?
For me, the Cali customer profile probably sits better there than with the van centres.
And assuming the workshop ramps are rated to lift the T7 Lifestyle Cali, would there be any reason why the car centres couldn't service them?

 

[Pineweasel]

The Multivan is available from "only available to order from a select list of Volkswagen Retailers and Van Centres" according to https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/new/multivan.html

So presumably those regular VW car dealers are able to service the Multivan and therefore could handle the new Cali. That said, you'd expect a California dealer to offer the Grand California too.

I agree that the car dealers would seem a better fit for the T7 customer.

 

[Perfectos]

Less Franchised dealer = Less competition (No discount sellers) = Fixed List pricing regimen

 

[Ocean Wanderer]

Spoke with Manchester VW CV Centre last week at van's 1st service. ,They will no longer be selling the new T7 "Lifestyle" Californias. These will be sold by the 10 selected dealers. However, service and warranty work by Manchester will NOT be affected. They will continue to provide both for all existing Calis.

Thanks that’s good to know

 

[willwander]

Less dealers, maybe they’re expecting to sell less ‘lifestyle’ Californias.