The Great Dealership Debate

[Mad Manny]

A debate has long raged over whether it matters if your brand has a few or many dealerships.
Owners of lesser brands say that a brand with many dealership means nothing.

If I were, hypothertically, buying a Porsche or McClaren or Bently or Ferrari (because I had a small willy) then only having one or two dealerships is not an issue as the vehicle isan investment & not my daily drive.

BUT! for most of us with a vehicle in daily use, especially a 4x4 prone to damage, I'd prefer a brand that has two things:
I. A good dealer spread.
II. A solid presence in SA

I. Why a good dealer spread?

1. I want a choice of dealerships nearby:
Often your closest dealer is crap, soi its nice to have options.
I have 7 Toyota and 3 Isuzu dealership with reasonable distance.

2. Knowing, if I travel or move, I'm not too far from a dealer should I need one.

II. A solid presence in SA
This means a brand that has been here for 20 years or more & is not likely to leave SA.
Why?
Just ask owners of Chev's, Citroen's, Chrysler's, Seat's, Daihatsu's, Chery's, Gonow's etc...

[Mad Manny]

I personally (with three exceptions) would not buy off a brand with less than 40 dealerships.
The exceptions being;
Honda
Lexus
&
Subaru


Dealerships by Brand
5 ABARTH
32 ALFA
3 ASTON MARTIN
44 AUDI
12 BAIC
1 BENTLY
58 BMW
44 DATSUN
2 FERRARI
35 FIAT
123 FORD
77 GWM
3 HAVAL
38 HONDA
107 HYUNDAI
142 ISUZU
13 JAC
33 JAGUAR
40 JEEP
21 JMC
74 KIA
1 LAMBORGHINI
31 LANDROVER
19 LEXUS
67 MAHINDRA
2 MASERATI
47 MAZDA
1 McLAREN
55 MERCEDES BENZ
15 MINI
52 MITSUBISHI
124 NISSAN
37 OPEL
25 PEUGEOT
4 PORSCHE
74 RENAULT (not 45 as stated in CAR November)
2 ROLLS ROYCE
32 SMART
35 SSANGYONG
13 SUBARU
43 SUZUKI
47 TATA (this number will decrease soon)
194 TOYOTA
119 VW
23 VOLVO

[KurtG]

I have a Mitsubishi and it is a pain to get the car serviced nearby. I’m in Joburg so it’s bearable but for the smaller town folks that I have met who own the same brand, they have to travel to get their car serviced so it means a day away from the office (or their farm) to drive to a town/city that has a Mitsubishi dealer.

And now that most of Mitsu dealers are these terrible watered down multi-franchise shitty places, proper technical repairs are a real hit and miss affair.

I would buy a Toyota in a heartbeat, if they made any decent vehicles.

[Mad Manny]

The Mitsubishi Dealership in Strubensvalley is also (largely) a Volvo dealership.

Multi Franchise is a sign a brand is small fry...

[Apocalypse]

I have a question.

Let us hypothetically assume you have a small Willy/erictoe dysfunction and can’t afford a Ferrari or similar.

Do you then buy a Fortuner for the extra support?

[Apocalypse]

Good grief NIc. Please specify the kind of dealer!!!

[Mad Manny]

No, they are bought usually by soccer moms and those of a... slightly skew persuasion.

That’s why they have so many dealers close to High Schools.

Says the guy driving a Clio...

[Oppies3800]

Ssangyong has 35 dealers?

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[Johannes]

Question . Is Smart not serviced by Mercedes ? Are thy not under one roof ???
Is Jaguar and Land rover now separate ??

Just asking ?

[KurtG]

Those numbers mean that there is a dealership, regardless if it forms part of a multi franchise group or not, the fact that there is presence means you can count it.

And yes, Smart is a Daimler AG product.

[Mad Manny]

Question . Is Smart not serviced by Mercedes ? Are thy not under one roof ???
Is Jaguar and Land rover now separate ??

Just asking ?

Johannes... some Merc dealerships do Smart.
But not all do.

Some BMW dealerships include Mini.
But not all do.

Some Land Rover dealerships are jointly with Jaguar (like the one in near me) while some are Land Rover only (like Waterford).

But that's irrelevant to the counting....

[Hedgehog]

Question . Is Smart not serviced by Mercedes ? Are thy not under one roof ???
Is Jaguar and Land rover now separate ??

Just asking ?

Johannes... some Merc dealerships do Smart.
But not all do.

Some BMW dealerships include Mini.
But not all do.

Some Land Rover dealerships are jointly with Jaguar (like the one in near me) while some are Land Rover only (like Waterford).

But that's irrelevant to the counting....



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Where is near me?

[KurtG]

That will be Mordor, Hedgehog

[Oldtimer]

The amount of dealerships is relative to how often a vehicle needs repairs............

I see Toyota has 194 dealerships, must be because a Toyota will need a service in every second town with their 10 000Km service intervals. Ford has less as they only get serviced every 20 000Km's. Land Rover has much less dealerships because of their 34000Km service intervals.........

Ok, ok, just joking...............

[XJ Junkie]

Some need lots of dealerships to handle all the product recalls.

I can’t see why any brand would need more than 50, unless of course they have commercial vehicles in their range that are popular in farming communities, etc.