This is “sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday” news in Chryslerland. Seriously, big up yourselves, ChryCo. Single-digit declines in the house (if only when compared to last summer’s dismal showing)! Having paraphrased the monthly press release, let’s get down to the numbers, shall we?
As TTAC noted just a few days ago, the Chrysler brand is toast. Sebring had its best month in . . . well, a long time, but still declined 27 percent. 300 was down a big 40 percent, while Aspen nearly dropped off the radar with a mere 402 sales. The PT Cruiser (+24 percent, 4,092 units) and Town And Country (-15 percent, 6,837 units) are the volume leaders for the Chrysler brand. Does that not say it all?
Further cementing the argument that ChryCo should kill Chrysler and make Dodge the volume brand: The Dodge Boys’ ability to cash in on the government’s CARS program. Avenger (5,616) creamed Sebring sales The Caliber outsold every single Chrysler nameplate. Even Charger (2,663) beat the 300, while Caravan (8,405) beat T&C, and the Journey stayed alive at 4,165.
Dodge’s major disappointment: the Challenger, which appears to have already thrown in the towel on the pony car wars at 886 units. At least the flash in the pan was fun while it lasted.
Jeep was the most consistent brand in the ChryCo stable, with only Commander (-81 percent to 522 units) falling off a cliff. And the Patriot’s success (+134 percent, to 8,084 units) was enough to make up for it. Man, is the small SUV the segment to be in or what?
Wrangler was not quite as resilient as it was through last summer, falling 25 percent year-on-year. Compass climbed back on the C4C coattails, however, coaxing 2,736 units out the door (+95 percent).
Next month won’t be so good if they are basically sold out of anything that qualifies for C4C.
They probably would have sold a lot more Wranglers if they had any to sell. They’re getting scarce and there isn’t a lot for potential buyers to choose from on lots.
Wow people buying so many calibers and compasses is depressing. It’s like the automotive equivalent of Transformer’s 2’s box office.
I wonder how many of those Challengers still have a markup on them?
Time to get a few factories humming again. One side effect of the massive production shutdowns and C4C sales boost is that there are likely to be fewer 2009s to clear out this fall as the 2010s start hitting in volume.
It’s only a matter of time before this company closes up for good. No matter if you have a lot of debt or little debt, nobody wants to buy your crappy cars. Especially after you took my tax money and gave bonuses to your execs, while at the same time eliminating thousands of jobs.
There’s no sport in making fun of Chrysler anymore. It’s too easy of a target. You boys are done.
Memo to Chrysler employees – keep looking for another job before the big Chapter 7 happens next year…
Are the Challenger’s bad numbers from demand drop-off or lack of availability? It has been awhile since I’ve seen one on a dealer lot.
Does anyone know how many days inventory Dodge has for the Challenger right now?
lol, there are still crossfires being sold.
as for the challenger, my opinion is that the market for a 198-inch muscle car is really, really narrow.
C4C or not, the Patriot and Compass are horrible freaking vehicles. There seems to be universal hatred for the Caliber, at least among car guys, but the Patriot and Compass don’t take the same kind of heat. They’re the same basic vehicle with a suspension lift! WTF??? They’re not that great. There are much, much better choices in the cute ute category, although I guess I must admit that none match the price. Even still, price can only make someone stoop so low.
The local Dodge dealer has them (challengers) lined up in front of his place, the same one’s that were there months ago.
You see? And all of you made fun of the sales bank, didn’t you? Now look what you’ve done — caused Chrysler to run out of the very inventory the sales bank was so brilliantly designed to create.
Doing a quick nonscientific check of new cars on Autotrader, within 100 miles of my zip code:
-There’s 21 new Challengers (nearest one 44 miles away from me)
-46 new Camaros
-249 2010 Mustangs
So GM and Chrysler do seem to have some dealer inventory issues on their muscle/pony cars. At least in my area.
Patriot has a faux low gear option that is a lifesaver in many circumstances. No other CUV offers an equivalent of it, and I remembered it all too well yesterday, while trying to rock RAV4 out of a TQ stall over some rocks on a modest incline.
Umm, Chrysler should not be patting itself on the back at this point in time.
The company’s overall sales are still down 9% over the dismal sales figures it posted last August. Its sales volume has still declined horribly compared to what it was selling two or three years ago. Frankly, the brand still has no business existing IMHO.
And the fact that these Big Three sales figures are fueling a stock rally today is proof positive that sheer stupidity is still alive and well on Wall Street. Where will it end?
Five of six automakers posted sales declines from last year, but all proclaim the success of C4C. And the exception – Ford – posted 2% increase (what? 1300 units?)
Fuzzy math is alive and well.
Lets think about it everyone. With the CFC these Sebrings/Avengers, Calibers, PT’s and Compatriots were selling for as little as 11K out the door. A basic PT LX with all rebates was 10,200 + fees. No wonder they are all gone.
For that amount of change I could ignore the shortcomings.
There is literally no CFC qualifying vehicles left on lots. One dealer has 2 Calibers and 1 Avenger left from maybe a dozen of each.
Five of six automakers posted sales declines from last year, but all proclaim the success of C4C.
C4C only kicked in in the last days of July, remember.
Chrysler was very agressive about going after C4C sales, with dollar for dollar rebate matches on most deals.
To sum up: Ford had a good month, though the small car unit sales are not likely to provide the good margins trucks used to provide. Ford did an excellent job of capitalizing on the C4C opportunity and has a goodly number of 2010 models already on the ground. GM had another lousy month due to a lackluster product line, demoralized dealers and a total lack of marketing prowess. Chrysler has a lackluster product line, but used agressive double-your-money marketing on the C4C program to pull better than GM relative sales numbers out of the hat.
Chrysler still has a better chance of making it through this mess than GM does. At least Chrysler has new leadership. Thanks to multiple rounds of purges (Daimler, Cerberus and now Fiat) there is almost nothing left of Chrysler Old Guard leadership around. GM, on the other hand, is still run mostly by people who have been there for decades. GM needs new bosses with new ways of doing things.
Exactly!
But scan the headlines today.
Here’s a typical one:
U.S. auto sales bolstered by rush to dump “clunkers”
Which includes fun stuff like:
Automakers credited the U.S. government’s runaway success of the U.S. government’s $1 billion “Cash for Clunkers” program with lifting industry-wide sales back above 11 million units on an annualized basis tracked by analysts.
but then later says:
Nearly half the vehicles sold under the U.S. government’s clunker incentive program in July were made by General Motors Co, Ford and Chrysler, according to data released on Monday.
On a year-over-year basis Chrysler posted a 9-percent sales decline for July. On that basis, GM sales were down 19 percent.
Among major Japanese automakers, sales for Toyota Motor Co were down 11 percent; Honda Motor Co was off 16 percent and Nissan Motor Co sales fell 25 percent.
yes, they had ONE GOOD WEEK and proclaim a roaring success. Annualized basis. Ha!
I’m proclaiming it a success because the money dried up so quickly, that’s all. We will see what August looks like if the program is extended.
Since Chrysler matched the C4C rebate they basically gave a $ 9,000 rebate (of course, $ 9,000 tax payer money one way or the other). Wow, with $ 9,000 rebate sales only declined by 9% from already very low numbers? I think I could sell my cat’s poo with that kind of rebate and would increase my sales.
I also think the Challenger numbers are at least partially impacted by inventory – practically none in the Boston area, haven’t been in a while. I think the factory was idled in May or June?
Brampton Assembly in Ontario (home of the Challenger/Charger/300) shutdown May 1st and only restarted production at the start of July.
I am sure this at least partially explains the low Challenger volumes. I don’t imagine the mess with Chrysler Financial/GMAC helped either. Even if a car was built it might have been held hostage somewhere until that all sorted out.
FYI – the local Dodge Dealer here seems to have no trouble moving his Challengers. They seem to disappear off of his lot within a week. The bad news is I bet he only gets about 5 units a month. It’s a great looking car – too bad.