In a letter from a dealer advisory group sent to Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares on Wednesday, the retailers argued that the CEO caused a sharp sales pullback through “disastrous choices.” The letter was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The car retailers called on Tavares to spend more money on customer promotions to clear out bloated inventories.

Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter was addressed to Tavares and signed by four Stellantis dealers who serve on an elected advisory committee. It also was sent to Stellantis Chair John Elkann on Wednesday, people familiar with the matter say. Elkann heads the holding company of Italy’s Agnelli family, which holds about a 15% stake in Stellantis, according to FactSet.

Dealers for months have complained to management behind closed doors about vehicles being priced too high, driving away price-conscious customers and leading to lackluster sales as rivals offer more discounts. Some Jeep and Ram retailers have said the company’s strategy has left too many older models sitting on lots.

Stellantis’s market share in the U.S. fell to 8.5% through the first half of the year, from 10.4% in the prior-year period, according to Cox Automotive. That is a significant loss in industry terms and was the most of any car manufacturer in the market over that period.

The company said when reporting first-half results in July that it would likely slash prices for its cars and cut production, as part of efforts to clear older models from dealer lots. Finance chief Natalie Knight told analysts that the company would be cutting output by 100,000 units as part of efforts to match demand and reduce inventory.

Stellantis has recently paused output of its most popular Jeep vehicles, the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee, The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Production has since resumed.

Stellantis and other automakers raised starting prices for cars and trucks and cut back on financing deals and rebates for customers in the past several years, after supply chain snags limited supply. That helped Stellantis post profit margins in 2023 that exceeded that of rivals and helped drive up its stock price.

Analysts say the company has lagged behind other carmakers in adjusting as vehicles became more available. The letter from dealers sent Wednesday said that “reckless short-term decision-making to secure record profits” had triggered the market-share losses.

“Your own distribution network, your dealer body, has been left in an anemic and diminished state,” the dealers said in the letter.

Bloomberg earlier reported on the letter.

Car retailers have previously called upon Stellantis management to offer up more cash rebates and other incentives to consumers, which help sell cars but can dent the automaker’s profit.

The letter called for the company to get manufacturing plants back to full capacity after clearing out inventory, despite the high cost the company would incur.

The dealers also cited what they described as fallout from Tavares’s decisions in the market, including a declining stock price, layoffs and executive departures. U.S.-traded shares of Stellantis are down about 35% this year.

Stellantis has trimmed its U.S. workforce several times this year, including up to 2,450 job cuts announced last month connected to ceased production of a Ram truck model.

Write to Ben Glickman at ben.glickman@wsj.com