This story first appeared in the May issue of AutoTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE
No other brand can reach into your pulsating heart and pick at every string with such fidelity that rationality simply leaves your brain to consciously ignore the warning light flashing on your cranial dashboard.
It’s the reason Antonio Scafidi and his fiancee Laura Cannistra got into the humble business of servicing and repairing Alfa Romeo and Fiat automobili.
However, their passion for the brand, like love itself, is being tested.
On the Alfa Romeo website, Selenia oil is described as “the lifeblood of every Alfa Romeo.
the difference between it running as intended”, which on a technical level is becoming something nightmarish for Antonio’s Auto Service.
Their modest little family business tucked away in less-than-glamorous Thomastown depends on a relationship with a range of parts suppliers for both aftermarket, non-genuine and 100% authentic genuine Alfa Romeo and Fiat parts for the most enthusiastic of their loyal customers.
“We have quite a number of customers who absolutely will not have anything other than totally genuine Alfa Romeo parts used on their car,” Cannistra tells AutoTalk.
“But we also have a customer base who say they will not service their Fiat or Alfa with anybody else because they are a part of our family, so we honour them by giving them the best customer service we possibly can,” she adds.
Her hair is splayed, the makeup stayed in the case and her darkened fingernails suggest she is far from the primped receptionist one might find at a dealership nearby.
Her daggy jumper wears the proud fade of a partner dedicated to the family business, not afraid to pull on gloves and lift sheetmetal onto a welding trolley, hold an oil filter without fear of smearing, and will get involved in the workshop in any way possible.
Antonio’s is not a gleaming franchised service department with ironed overalls strutting under the roof of a multi-million dollar contract with a global automotive powerhouse.
But business is becoming hard to hold onto when late-model Alfa Romeo owners start to get short-changed by the brand they love, some of whom AutoTalk understands have had a better customer experience with Antonio’s than their dealership.
“When we order Selenia oil, which the customer has requested be used to ensure everything in her car is Alfa Romeo, we can only get it from the franchised dealer in Australia – it can’t be imported independently and nobody is allowed to stock it,” Cannistra explains.
“So, we order five litres, the quote comes back saying four one-litre bottles are on back order, and we would’ve been supplied one litre – the order also had a three-month delay,” she reveals.
Cannistra likens the situation to the food industry where “home brand” food is typically the same, if not truer to the original food, than name-brand versions, which often have added salt, sugar and preservatives behind the colourful, graphic label.
“It’s marketing; no car manufacturer makes the servicing parts and if I call one of the dealers to order spark plugs, filters, etc; I get a box with Alfa Romeo and Fiat logos all over it, on the packaging, but opening it up, they’re the same NGK plugs I could get at Burson’s or Repco,” she says.
Selenia oil is made by Petronas and is a formula of oil specifically for Alfas, especially Giulietta, made in the last 10 years.
“If I contact Petronas directly, they say they can’t sell it to me, they also can’t sell me an equivalent because there isn’t one, according to them,” she says.
“I feel they don’t want to give it to anybody else, either because their stock is tight, or they aren’t allowed to sell it to us, but considering they have to service their own customers under warranty, I find it hard to fathom,” Cannistra concedes.
“It’s unfair because they’re our only option.
If they don’t have the oil, then they couldn’t possibly be putting it in cars they’re servicing,” she surmises.
According to Penrite’s product selector, 5.1 litres of Selenia goes into a current-model 1.7-litre engine Giulietta Veloce, and 3.5 litres goes into the 1.4-litre engine, still under warranty.
And according to VFACTS data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Alfa Romeo sold 56 Giuliettas year-to-date to the end of March 2019, and 89 for the year-to-date by end of March 2018.
Even if sales were split 50/50 Veloce to base model and mid-spec versions, that’s 623 litres of Selenia oil required to service those vehicles in the last two years.
Anybody who tries to buy from another brand like Penrite or Liqui-Moly, will find an equivalent listing such as the “Enviro” 5w-40 from the former, which works fine in most cases, to a point.
Another workshop in Melbourne’s west run by Matt, aka “Alfa Man”, regards itself as an Alfa Romeo specialist and says the Selenia oil situation is just one example.
“The new Selenia oil blend recipe is not licensed to any other oil brand,” he says.
“There are equivalent oils you can use from other brands which match the performance and then some, but they don’t protect special solenoids which are prematurely chemically damaged by anything other than Selenia,” Matt reveals.
“I would suspect many workshops, possibly even some dealerships, are not using Selenia oil because whenever I’ve contacted the warehouse, they tell me it ‘hasn’t been in stock for months’ or ‘hasn’t been made available’,” he adds.
Matt says the string of curious responses doesn’t stop at the seemingly uber-rare Selenia oil but includes snapped timing belts not being serviced in the required intervals.
“Talking to the service manager at the Alfa dealer, I quote a part number and there’s a total lack of knowledge for Selenia or other parts,” he says, not knowing if it’s by design or inconvenient coincidence.
In terms of winning customers, the dealership, according to Cannistra and her customers, are quoting list prices for parts, excluding GST, which she presumes is to make their quotes appear initially cheaper to customers.
Other hurdles for both businesses include access to data through proper Alfa Romeo scan tools.
Cannistra also points out the so-called genuine part Mann oil filter (sitting on her desk) which Antonio pulled off a car, wasn’t even the licensed Alfa Romeo-branded filter, despite being identical to the non-branded Mann filter.
“We had one of the first new Alfa scan tools, even before the dealers, but when we logged on from Australia their IP blocked us out,” she says.
“We have to turn away customers when we can’t get the Selenia oil, or the Selespeed automated clutch oil which is again the only oil some cars will accept,” she adds.
“It’s not fair.We started as a mobile service six years ago when Anotonio couldn’t even speak English, and we still have a handful of our very first clients, some we’re now family friends with,” Cannistra remembers.
“We even started doing overflow work or jobs other Alfa and Fiat mechanics didn’t know how to do; people always say ‘don’t buy Italian cars’, but it’s not the cars, it’s the mechanics, and Antonio is one of the best,” she beams.
“Antonio could take a handful of bolts, screws and clips and tell you exactly where they go.”
Matt says Alfa workshops are still managing to find ways to service vehicles without authenticated scan tools.
“There aren’t many brands like Alfa which require a branded proprietary-specific computer for resetting service indicator, but the software is becoming leaked through certain channels,” he discloses, but doesn’t give away his secrets.
Alfa was down 38% in March 2019 compared with 2018, down 12% year-to-date compared with 2018, but did finish 2018 up 21% on 2017 with 1279 reported sales.
Alfa also had a strong 2017 selling 1057 cars for a sizeable 48% improvement over 2016, helped by the Giulietta launch and opening Zagame’s Richmond showroom.
Alfa is coming on strong.
Fiat Chrysler Australia chief executive Steve Zanlunghi said in late 2016 that the Zagame Alfa dealership would represent the start of the brand’s premium market push.
“This [dealership] is the flagship of the Alfa brand and it is way ahead of the curve [compared] with some of the other dealers,” he said.
“The journey is just beginning for the Alfa brand .
You won’t see any of our long-term dealers having competitive makes in their facilities,” Zanlunghi said.
There are now 16 Alfa Romeo dealers across Australia.
“We have volume aspirations, but we are not looking to take over the world with this brand,” Zanlunghi added, intending to “establish as a premium contender”.
But it seems there’s still work to be done.
“The current cars like the Giulia are amazing,” Matt continues.
“But people are walking away from dealership servicing to us because they’re not being shown the same level of customer service passion as they feel for their Alfa,” he continues.
“They love their Alfa, or their Fiat, they love the brand, but as soon as their warranty is up, they’re gone,” he concludes.
Matt says he’s also had to find several clever ways to service his customers’ cars without having to rely – if that’s the right term – on sourcing through franchised Alfa Romeo dealerships.
This begs the question why (or if) all franchised dealers, let alone Alfa Romeo, are missing the chance to sell their genuine parts in earnest to independent brand-only specialist workshops, for the betterment of the brand.
Cannistra says many of their customers are adamant they will not have any other brand on their pristine, original Alfa.
For all the workshop business owners who would drop or run from the Milan and Visconti serpent badge, there are a few who wouldn’t dare.
Selenia may be the lifeblood of every Alfa, but Alfa Romeo, for better or worse, in sickness and health, runs through Antonio Scafidi and Laura Cannistra even thicker.
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