Leonard Bellavia: Are OEMs Taking Over For Franchise Dealers?

Leonard A. Bellavia is the founding partner at Bellavia Blatt (dealerlaw.com) and specializes in dealership franchise law. With the variety of announcements coming from OEMs, including class action lawsuits in Australia, it's timely that Leonard joins us to discuss the future of retail automotive and answer the question: Are OEMs taking over for franchise dealers?What we discuss in this episode:👉 Register for the upcoming Fixed Ops Roundtable EventWhat we discuss in this episode:03:25 - Are dealers going to be at risk of being cut out of the sales process? Leonard explains that the franchise system has been in place for a hundred plus years, which begs the question: Is something that's not broken really in need of repair?"The concept of radicalizing and revolutionizing changes to the auto franchise system is nothing new. We saw it in the eighties and then with companies like Saturn. We could probably write a book on all of the things that were supposed to radically change the way cars get sold to the public, but low and behold, we seem to always revert back to the good old hometown dealer."07:23 - Leonard shares that manufacturers will say that things need to chang because the public "doesn't like the current system of buying a car." They aren't wrong. The current experience takes longer than it should and it's not convenient to have to wait through the back and forth.If anything, this should cause dealers to look deeply at the customer experience they are offering. As Len points out, "the problem with the term customer experience is that it's being relied upon too heavily as a scaepgot for changing the whole system. Dealers and OEMs are in lockstep. They both want the customer experience to be positive, so sometimes the manufacturer will say that they are going to make changes because they want to try and improve the way dealers treat the consumer. But dealers treat the consumer pretty well, and they are trying to improve."Listen to the episode featuring Leonard Bellavia for even more insights!Enjoying The Fixed Ops Roundtable Podcast? Please leave a rating and review 👇Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fixed-ops-roundtable/id1608656237Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15HHYoyvCo1PSFwYn02UXYThanks, Leonard Bellavia!Connect with Ted Ings and the Fixed Ops Roundtable:Register for the next Fixed Ops Roundtable EventTed Ings on LinkedInCenter for Performance Improvement