Chrysler LLC’s first month without car leasing went just fine, thank you. Okay, maybe not. The beleaguered automaker’s sales are down 34% last month and 24% for the year, with the second number going down 1 percent in each of the past 3 months. There were few bright spots, the biggest being the Town & Country minivan, up 15% and Charger up 3% (*cough* fleets). The Dodge Journey continues to sell well at 4,587 CUV’s sold this month, and everything else was petrified from too much time on the lots. The smaller Jeep Patriot was down 21%, which wasn’t as bad as its hideous fraternal twins, the Compass (down 56%) and Dodge Caliber (down 57%). Most other vehicles are again in negative double digit territory. Dodge Durango didn’t do quite as badly this month, up to 1,430 from 384 in July. The Durango Hybrid (DuH) hasn’t gone on sale yet, so we’ll wait for the numbers to bump next month. Or not.
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This should make it easier for Cerberus to become a marketer of other manufacturer’s cars, as they won’t be able to sell any of their own.
I’d like to see a breakdown of inventory days for each manufacturer, though. I’m curious to see just how deep they’re stacking ’em.
Any news yet on sales of the VW Routan? (Whoever names VW’s cars should be taken out and shot posthaste)
How many forks do they have sticking out of them?
I moved at the end of May. On my new commute to work, I pass a DC dealer. This dealer has 4 ramps in front of the lot to display his best cars/goota go cars. In May, there was the yellow ‘old’ Dakota, the blue ‘new’ Dakota (front fascia tweaks), a small-V6 Magnum proudly stating 26MPG, and a green new Journey. After 1 month, the Magnum and Journey left, to be replaced with a white Dakota and a black Dakota. Those four trucks, as well as the 60 other Rams, Dakotas, and Durango’s haven’t budged an inch in 3 months.
And counting.
part of the problem is what they have in stock. We had trouble finding a Jeep dealership that had a Patriot in stock with the options we wanted. About a 3rd of the dealerships didn’t have *any* Patriots. Most of what remained only had stripped-down Sports in stock. There were only a couple that had any Limiteds at all. This is out of over 20 dealerships.
Luckily, One of the very few Limiteds around was exactly what my wife was looking for, even the right color.
I don’t know if it’s that “between 2008/09 model year thing”…but they’d probably sell more Patriots if they had more of the non-base-model ones to sell.
Sooo many giant truck-things on the lots. Really scary. We could have almost certainly walked out with a Commander/GC for the same price as the Patriot…but that would have been way bigger than what we were looking for.
Rumor has it Chrysler was thinking of offering employee pricing for everyone, but then Marketing found out they no longer have an employee policy since there are so few employees left.
OK, I made that up.
I’d like to note that the Charger’s *cough* fleet sales could very well be from police departments, not rental car companies.
That is all.
I was 1% off with my prediction of sales dropping for the month of August as I thought it would be 35%. Chrysler is building such ignorant cars and truck. Let’s face it with energy cost on the rise these cars and truck are simply ignorant. Look at the Challenger….WOW! what a BIG UGLY IGNORANT car. Surprised that the charger with it’s poor gas mileage would be bought by cash straped cops? Everytime I see someone in a hummer I laugh and soon people will laugh at those buying big ugly cars and trucks.
I’d love to buy a WK (Grand Cherokee) Limited right now for the wife, but her Liberty is doing just fine and I can’t think of a reason to sell her on an upgrade. She only drives 15 miles a day so big deal about MPG. Plus I’d love to drive a HEMI.
Chrysler is pricing the Hemi police Chargers to compete with the Ford Crown Vic. The Crown Vic makes money for Ford, but you have to wonder if the Charger is profitable at this price point.
The following link to Allpar.com compares the bids the Florida Highway Patrol recently received from Chrysler, Ford and Chevy.
http://www.allpar.com/squads/police-cars/chargers-in-use.html
Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealer was having a sale last month. 50% off. And they paid the sales tax.
Still down 34%. Holy crap.
Every day or so, I pass a local dealer.
I’m convinced they survive on used cars. I’ve seen the same trucks in the lot stay there for a very long time. Other than the turnover on the front of the lot with cars, etc, the trucks stay. If you want a Patriot, I’m sure 14k would do it.
Cute kittycat…
They should have kept the Neon in their lineup, and worked at improving the quality.
A local dealer here in Albuquerque was having a big sale on Rams, with 2 options: get 50% off MSRP, or buy a Ram and get an Avenger or Caliber for free. I have no idea how many takers he had; probably not too many, given Chrysler’s final sales numbers, and the fact that the dealer looked like a Broadway version of Satan. No thanks.
“Still down 34%. Holy crap.”
Reminds me of the Knight from Monty Python. I’m not dead yet! It’s just a flesh wound!
I’m still bitter from my first new car purchase. 1995 Neon. It self-destructed before my very eyes. Now it’s Hondas for me.
The only vehicle Chrysler seems to be able to move with little or no incentives (meaning it’s likely the most profitable) is the ancient JK Jeep (Wrangler Unlimited), and even those are starting to pile up on the lots.
What’s most amazing is that Consumer Reports gives the JK the lowest rating of any current vehicle. It ranks dead last in virtually every category, including reliability, but, apparently, consumers seem to want to buy them more than any other Chrysler product.
I don’t think they have long in this world…
What an amazing kitten, kinda reminds me my cat Foske! Drop dead gorgeous! What concerns Chrysler it is drop dead.
@rudiger: the Wrangler excels in virtues not quantifiable by Consumer Reports.
Great caption for the pic.
Harvey Birdman: the Nissan dealer in Macon is running a sale similar to the one you mention. Buy a new Titan or Armada, get a new Altima free.
I wonder about Chrysler’s fleet sales. I work for the federal government, and we have very few Chrysler vehicles coming in. The only ones that I can think of off the top of my head are a few Rams, Durangos, and Avengers (only in non-California emissions states).
Most of the new vehicles are GM. For full-size cars, we have only received Impalas for the past couple years. Believe it or not, those are cheaper than the smaller Avenger for us. The Impala is E85 as well, so that satisfies federal mandates.
We have a few Fords as well, mostly trucks with a few Focuses.
Maybe the Chargers are only going to local/state police agencies? Other than that, I’m guessing that rental car companies make up the bulk of Chrysler’s fleet sales.
There’s blood on the streets in Detroit, not to mention Tokyo. Mitsubishi (already suffering) down virtually as much as Chrysler. Honda down a bit (they’d defied gravity through the summer).
The South Koreans are pretty well defying gravity, with Hyundai only down a tad and Kia actually UP significantly. Nissan is up a tad, I think, but hey, anyone can empty their coffers and bribe buyers with huge rebates for a little while – until the well runs dry.
I think the handwriting is on the wall for Chrysler. The question is – how long will the company manage to limp along?
Perhaps Chrysler could simply lay off their truck plant and SUV plant workforces for oh, a year or so, and see if they can clear the lots. OK I know, “fixed costs”.
Many of the remaining car buyers are looking at Consumer Reports (or, not), or possibly just looking at high pressure advertisements from Kia (as we have here locally) or Hyundai and saying – yeah, I CAN still afford a new car. And it’ll save gas. And it has a long-long warrantee.
Chysler are so screwed.
Seeing a lot of cop cars and government vehicles with charger and stratus on the tail lid. I’d consider that a mercy deal for cry-sler at best. A state policeman in my neighborhood went to investigation work and they swapped his crown vic out for a stratus. He misses the Vic
Yes sales are down, but there’s a bright side – the glass half full thing. An article in Freep today has Chrysler happy about a slide of 29% in warranty costs since February.
Well after my “bout of insanity” (i.e. buying Chrysler products in the past – I’m better now), mel23, I have to wonder if Cry-slur’s 29% reduction in warrantee costs since February has anything to do with their sales drop since then?
Anyone know if Chrysler sales has tanked MORE than 29% since February?! I suspect it’s so.
The illuminating fact would be for Chrysler to say that on a per-car basis, warrantee costs have gone down (and I suspect – they can’t say that).
To me, the only bright spot in Chryco’s line up is the Journey. It is better on the inside that I expected (better than the car from which it is derived). Also, it is a modern interpretation of the station wagon, which served the North American public for years. I doubt the T&C sales increases will be sustained. The rest of their line up…dead or dying.
The Charger-as-police-car thing seems to be the new thing here in Virginia.
If you thought the civilian version looked ridiculous, you ought to see them decked out in Virginia State Police blue and gray livery.
I can understand the rationale for a government selecting the low bidder, however, these vehicles have replaced road kill as the most gruesome sights on the highway.