The American car market in May reflected several stereotypes, not the least of which being that Jeep is the engine that’s currently driving the FCA machine.
The picture as a whole? Well, it’s largely flat, with continued light truck demand seeming to offset dips in car sales.
A good example of this is Toyota, which reported a 1.3 percent decline for the month of May before going on to explain that car deliveries were down 11 percent but light trucks were up nearly 6 percent.
Like LeBron James, a man who single-handedly lifts the Cavs by scoring 50 points in a game only to see JR Smith throw it all away by thinking the score is tied, Jeep was largely responsible for FCA’s good fortunes in May. Proving the off-road brand remains the most valuable part of the empire, Jeep was up 28.8 percent last month — an increase of over 20,000 units.
This is not an aberration; the brand has increased sales by 22.5 percent so far this year, up nearly 70,000 units during the first five months of 2018. All by itself, Jeep has been responsible for 44.7 percent of FCA sales so far this year. That’s about 30,000 more vehicles sold than VW and Mazda combined. If you think you’re seeing more Jeeps during the commute, you’re probably right.
VW and Mazda are up 7.5 percent and 14.9 percent respectively this year, by the way. That’s encouraging news for anyone who likes the zoom-zoom brand from Hiroshima. VW is reportedly helped along by its crossovers, too.
Of course, any talk of GM is purely speculative, since the corporation decided a couple of months ago that the great unwashed are not worthy of sales updates every 30 days. Analysts believe The General did good business in May, thanks to a portfolio of new or fairly new crossovers and rebates on most everything else.
At the Glass House, Ford’s namesake brand was down about two percent from the same point one year ago. Lincoln saw a 5.2 percent drop last month, dragging it down 13.4 percent in 2018. IF the robust-selling Navigator didn’t exist, we’d likely be writing about even more depressing numbers. Long-time readers will know I find this news difficult, since I suffer from Stockholm Syndrome with the Lincoln brand.
Forecasts peg annual total market sales in 2018 to potentially dip below 17 million for the first time in three years. The industry saw seven straight years of annual gains as it crawled out of the depths of 2008/2009, capped by a 17.245 million number in 2016.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
The four letters that sell any bad car when prominently displayed on its back!
T, O, Y, A? These four letters?
Toyota makes the only cars left that are more than likely to last 200,000 miles. Jeeps are held together by wax buildup.
My Jeep Grand Cherokee is still happily humming along at over 200K, Still looks great- like a luxury car (inside) even though the exterior is a little worse for wear. Of course, it has been well maintained like any valuable tool.
I’m talking about what you can buy new today. Four cylinder Hondas from 2012 can go a million miles. Today? Only if you’ve got a stack of engines and transmissions.
@Todd
To be fair, that’s b/c Honda (and Acura) have had teething issues w/ their new powertrains.
Toyotas have been reliable in part b/c they keep their powertrains around for a long time; Toyota just started putting in new powertains, so it remains to be seen if they have teething issues (Toyota’s venerable V6 had issues early on).
Your guest editor this week was Sergio Marchionne.
Mr. Guy, I share the Lincoln affliction and I do understand.
I’d really like to see a Lincoln branded Mustang convertible. It can be a straight up Mercury like rebadge, just offer a different grille and some new sheetmetal on the trunk with the Conti hump. Hell, Lincoln just offer a kit and I’ll buy the Mustang and install it myself. Help some brothers out.
The only thing in the lineup which remotely interests me is the Conti and realistically there won’t be one in my driveway anytime soon. I wanted to like Zephyr, but I couldn’t see out of the swoopy version. I liked MKS but you did a great job of artificially blocking the rear window (huge third brake like module, seems on purpose) and the poor styling cut into the bottom view. I won’t touch your catmobiles and I’m not digging Navi (don’t like the segment). What’s an aspiring executive to do…? Oh yeah, buy foreign :(
Mark X
Mark X
Mark X
Or buy *classic*.
Carb voodoo gets kind of old for a regularly driven car, but you can get an immaculate Mark VII for a very reasonable price.
True.
Sir, what your do you think this is??
Mitsubishi’s resilience continues to amaze me, maybe their new Eclipse Cross is selling.
Same. I think they’re filling a niche at the bottom of the market that others have left.
Exhibit A: Mirage
Besides Hyundai/Kia, they’re the only ones with a 10/100 warranty. While their vehicles don’t get great marks, I don’t think they’re particularly unreliable, either.
My local Mitsubishi dealers run a lot of radio ads proclaiming their price advantages over the big names, especially in the CUV segment. One of them has been a standalone Mitsubishi dealer for decades – can you imagine?
The Mitsubishi dealer here is part of one of those “auto malls”. No, I can’t imagine a stand alone Mitsu dealer, holy cow, there must have been some really lean years for him, lol.
Behold.
southparkmitsubishi.com
South Park Mitsu has 169 new cars in stock, pretty ambitious. 0% for 72 months, they’re giving them away there. If someone was looking for an inexpensive car with a good warranty it would be worth a look.
I see Outlanders everwhere along with new Rogues in Northeast Ohio. In three months they will be dented and show other signs of being ignored modes of transportation. I would like to know the purchase-lease ratio.
Maybe they’re getting random shoppers: people who take a couple of test drives and then suddenly buy a car on the spur of the moment. A friend of mine has a wife like that. He is a major enthusiast of Nissan, although not of Nismo: used to have a Murano and a Frontier. His wife bought an Outlander. A week ago it was totaled by a UX designer from Microsoft who ran a red light. Now apparently he says “glory to Mitsubishi” because the wife came out uninjured.
For all the good news FCA is still way too addicted to US sales of SUVs. They need to do better elsewhere. That said at their current rate of growth it won’t be long before the outsell Ford at home!
As I see it there are 4 or 5 companies with merger potential for FCA they are:
PSA
Tata Motors
Mazda
Suzuki
Equally all 4 of those car makers need partners with the possible exception of Tata who may be able to do a Hyundai and grow into a world car brand by themselves.
Tata? Those are incendiary, a stray grocery cart hits one and it’s in orbit. I think they use C-4 for sound insulation or something. It’s like a chain smoker driving a Ford Pinto.
Let the record show, Sergio took a bankrupt company, and has delivered. People can complain all they want, the fact is the company owes no one money, and its two prime assets are in great shape. Jeep and RAM are killing it. Hopefully the next CEO doesn’t spend unnecssarily on cars. Just keep the 300 and Challenger/Charger around for next 20 years. No need to replace. Keep investing in bigger Jeeps and better small engines for small Jeeps.
PMI>>>
You make a lot of sense.
AGREE.
Yes, as soon as FCA gets the new RAM humming along, they need Ramcharger/Wagoneer twins ASAP. Free money right there.
Agree, and the Jeep pickup is gonna make them a pile of money too.
If they actually do put a supercharged 6.2 in the Ram “Raptor” they are going to have yet another winner.
One could say that the “merger” out of necessity (on both sides) saved the European side.
The US auto market has been on a long and profitable growth spurt (ever since the darkest days of the Great Recession) where anyone selling trucks, SUVs and CUVs are minting $$.
It took longer for the European auto market to start its recovery mode.
Not particularly impressed by the fact Jeep and Ram are doing very well (basically, only a moron would have not have done well w/ those brands/products).
Would have been impressed if Marchionne had been able to keep Chrysler a viable brand (and not just the seller of a people mover).
If Alfa becomes a decent-sized player in the mainstream lux market, then would be somewhat impressed (the lux market has grown as the # of people able to afford a lux auto purchase has increased worldwide).
One “sore winner” guy will be VERY, almost tweetingly, unhappy that the all-time US auto sales record was set in 2016, while the economy was so “horrible” and nobody had a dime to spare on big-ticket items. Maybe high tariffs and easy trade wars will spur economic growth, d’ya think?
TDS
I don’t know when it happened, but here in suburban Boston, the Wrangler is now *the* vehicle. In my neighborhood of about 30 homes, half have Wranglers. Some of them have two of them and one has three. I have several friends who have picked up Wranglers in the last two years. It’s hands down the most popular vehicle. The new Pilot is probably next on that list by the eye test.