Fiat Chrysler Automobiles posted a 2-percent overall gain in sales for August, keeping its 65-month streak of increased sales alive, the automaker reported Tuesday.
Jeep jumped the largest amount for the automaker; Jeep reported an 18-percent increase as a brand and four of its models posted sales gains. Sales of Dodge-branded vehicles slid 15 percent overall, and Chrysler-branded cars fell 14 percent.
FCA reported it sold more than 200,000 vehicles in North America for the second month this year.
The Jeep Compass was the brand’s biggest gainer over August 2014 sales. Compass improved 58 percent over the same month a year ago. Jeep also reported that sales of its new Renegade were up 29 percent over July.
Chrysler-branded cars were down overall, but the automaker said sales of its Chrysler 200 were up 30 percent over last year.
FCA said Ram-branded trucks and vans posted a 6-percent increase, led by its full-size pickup.
(According to the automaker, Fiat 500L sales were up over last year and now I’ve seen everything.)
Let’s see… Chrysler has the 300 and 200, and Dodge has the Charger, Dart, and Challenger. The 200 is the newest model, followed by the 4 year old Dart. That’s a pretty meager lineup of older models. Where’s the Newport, New Yorker, the Fifth Avenue, the Concorde, the Cordoba, the Imperial? Where’s the Neon/Omni, The Demon, The Swinger, the Diplomat, the Polara, the Intrepid, the Monaco? No wonder sales are down for Dodge/Chrysler – they don’t have any models and are letting those great model names go to waste!
August 2015 had one less selling day than last year so its not an apples to apples comparison (also no Labor Day sale like last year).
Unfortunately, Chrysler is a 3 model brand right now. With the new Town & Country almost out next year, and the attrition of large sedan sales to crossovers, it only makes sense that Chrysler sales are down.
Dodge shares the same problems with the Charger, Grand Caravan.
FCA’s investment has mostly gone to new Jeep products – Cherokee and Renegade, and it seems to have paid off.
CR just rated the 200 as the worst vehicle in America (driving dynamics, not quality).
I was surprised to see that review but they were referring to the 4 cylinder. I wonder if their test results were different with the 3.6 Pentastar.
Isn’t this good news? That means FCA sold more of the highly profitable Ram trucks and Jeep Grand Cherokee’s that keep them alive. Sure, the rest of the lineup had crappy sales, but those sort of suck.