Financial regulators in the USA are taking interest in carmakers’ practices of recording their revenues based on shipments to their franchised dealers rather than on the sales to end-users.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and The Department of Justice are undertaking investigations into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles over its reporting of quarterly and annual results.
The BBC reports that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has reported record sales since 2014 when Fiat took full control of US-based Chrysler.
The probe comes after a Fiat Chrysler dealer, Napleton Automotive Group, began legal action against the carmaker and accused it of racketeering and fraud.
Napleton’s boss claims the carmaker offered it $20,000 in exchange for falsely reporting the sales of 40 new vehicles. He claimed the carmaker would regularly report sales at the end of the month but then cancel them later.
FCA said it is cooperating with The Securities and Exchange Commission and The Department of Justice.
It said it will defend itself against Napleton’s lawsuit.
In the UK, despite the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders monthly publishing of overall market figures, there continues to be a lack of public transparency over the volume of each car brand’s actual sales to private and corporate customers and the proportion of other sales to their own operations such as management cars, demonstrators and courtesy cars.
As editor, Tim is responsible for the media content, planning and production of AM's multiple channels (AM print and digital magazines, website, social media and contributing to our events planning). He interviews and writes about as many franchised dealer groups and UK divisions of motor manufacturers as possible, to explore the issues facing UK motor retail and understand what solutions dealers and suppliers are using to overcome these.
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