Dealers felt Eberhardt tuned them out

Joe Eberhardt in 2004: He became a lightning rod for the Chrysler group's ballooning inventory and the resulting alienation of dealers.

Bradford Wernle | | Automotive News / December 11, 2006 - 1:00 am
DETROIT -- One blogger quipped on autoblog.com last week that "With Dodges, Chryslers, and Jeeps piling up and sales way down, (Joe) Eberhardt's departure is as needed as Donald Rumsfeld's."

The controversial Chrysler group's global sales, marketing and service chief had become a lightning rod for the company's ballooning inventories and the resulting alienation of many dealers.

Dealers felt the German-born executive had little understanding of their business or empathy for their problems.

Eberhardt, 43, left to run a Mercedes-Benz dealership at an unspecified location. Chrysler declined to make Eberhardt available for an interview.

Dealers' primary complaints about Eberhardt were that he did not listen to their concerns, and that he blamed them for not being able to sell cars they had never asked for in the first place.

Head-shaking

In dealer meetings, "Joe had made up his mind what the outcome was going to be," said one Detroit-area dealer. "I saw too many dealers at too many sessions, stand up and make a comment about their current state of affairs.

"Instead of empathizing with you, he'd tell you that you were wrong. People in the room would shake their heads."

Dealers in the Chicago area were angered when Eberhardt shouted down a prominent dealer who made a suggestion at an October sales meeting.

Problems peaked last June when Eberhardt clashed with Gary Dilts, Chrysler's senior vice president of sales. Eberhardt emerged from that conflict as the winner. Dilts and Ray Fisher, the popular veteran vice president of sales, service and parts, both resigned.

Many dealers blamed Eberhardt for the two executives' departure. Sources familiar with events at Chrysler say that some influential dealers even sought to have Eberhardt ousted, but failed.

Employee pricing

Dealers say Eberhardt insisted on a repeat performance -- against the advice of many of them -- of the employee pricing incentive Chrysler ran during the summer of 2005.

The second program, which ran during August, flopped when other manufacturers failed to join in and create the sales frenzy Chrysler hoped for.

What made it worse was that the incentive was tied to an ad campaign featuring popular DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsche. The ad campaign, called "Ask Dr. Z," was pulled after just two months. Sources say Eberhardt urged a reluctant Zetsche to do the spots.

But some dealers stick up for Eberhardt. Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc., the country's largest dealer ship group, said Eberhardt has taken the blame for a wider problem: "People can talk about Joe's bedside manner, but the issue is over-production."

Jim Arrigo, owner of Arrigo Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in West Palm Beach, Fla., said he had never had a problem with Eberhardt. "Nobody's ever told me that I had to do anything. Anybody that says Joe Eberhardt tried to push them out of their businesses" is wrong, he said.

But Arrigo did acknowledge that Eberhardt "ended up generating a lot of enemies" in the dealer community. "They're very smart people. Unfortunately, there's a lot of guys out there who thought the way he ran the company wasn't the right way."