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Oct 15, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Chrysler tops Ford in light truck sales

Chrysler Group LLC, benefiting from demand for its fuel-efficient crossover sport-utility vehicles, overtook Ford Motor Co. as the biggest seller of light trucks in Canada this year.

Sales of light trucks, a category that includes pickups, minivans and SUVs, grew twice as fast as total auto deliveries in Canada in the first half, helped by growth in construction jobs. Chrysler led deliveries last month for the first time since January, winning by a wide enough margin to snatch the crown for year-to-date sales.

Purchases of Chrysler’s Dodge Journey model, which guzzles less gasoline than a traditional truck-based SUV, increased more than Ford’s Escape or General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Equinox. Those gains put Chrysler within less than 4,000 total deliveries of becoming the overall No. 2 automaker in Canada, where a growing economy is expected to lead to a 2.6 per cent increase in sales this year industrywide, according to Scotia Capital Inc.

“People who are getting jobs are opting for practical vehicles such as a crossover to get better mileage than a traditional SUV, said Carlos Gomes, an economist at Scotia Capital.

“You have the construction sector holding up very well, and that is positive for the pickup segment.”

In total vehicle sales, Chrysler gained 1.6 percentage points of market share to 15 per cent in the first half of 2011 from a year earlier, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. GM lost 0.2 points to 15.5 per cent, and Ford led with 17.4 per cent of the Canadian market. Ford eclipsed GM as Canada’s topseller last year for the first time in decades.

Canadian sales may climb 40,000 this year to 1.59 million, about 60,000 fewer than the nation’s 2007 pre-recession peak, said Gomes.

High fuel prices led many consumers to gravitate toward compact cars and car-based SUVs, commonly called crossovers, for their fuel efficiency, Gomes said.

Light-truck sales in the first half grew more than twice as fast as Canada’s industry average of 2.7 per cent over the same period last year.

The category has made up about 85 per cent of Chrysler’s sales since the beginning of 2010.

As SUVs’ fuel efficiency improves, buyers are “bleeding from the midsize car segments over to compact utilities or minivans,” said Ryan Robinson, director of automotive practice for J.D. Power and Associates Canada in Toronto. “If you’re going to offer similar kinds of fuel economy with greater space, that’s obviously going to attract people.”

Chrysler’s Dodge Journey sales increased more than 50 per cent to 16,069 in Canada. GM’s Chevrolet Equinox sales rose 31 per cent to 12,175, and Ford boosted Escape sales five per cent to 23,183. DesRosiers labelled those models “intermediate SUVs” in a July 11 report and said the segment grew 21 per cent.

There were only a few Journeys on the lot of Steve Dennis’s Chrysler dealership in Winnipeg on July 7.

“I probably did undershoot the market,” he said in a telephone interview. “I won’t make the mistake of running out again.”

Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, Ram pickups and Jeep Wrangler SUVs, as well as the Journey, reported best-ever June sales in Canada. “This is the best retail June sales month since 2005,” Dave Buckingham, Chrysler Canada’s chief operating officer, said in a July 4 statement. Its 23.2 per cent of the light-truck market is better than any yearly total since 2002, Jordan Wasylyk, a spokesman, said in an email.

Light-trucks surpassed passenger cars in 2010 sales for the first time in more than a decade and composed 55 per cent of the market in the first half of this year.

Passenger cars outsold light trucks in the U.S. in the first half of 2011 with 51 percent of the world’s second-largest automobile market this year, unchanged from a year earlier.

Crossovers were the largest segment of the U.S. auto market in the first half of 2011, accounting for more than one-sixth of sales, according to Autodata Corp. Pickup sales grew slower than GM expected, causing its inventory to swell to 122 days’ worth, Bloomberg News reported July 5.

A sour U.S. economy may stymie sales growth in Canada, said Michael Hatch, chief economist for the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association.

“There are a lot of sectors and industries here that rely on U.S. demand,” he said.

Dennis, the dealer in Winnipeg, said he is looking forward to selling the Fiat 500, Chrysler Group’s only subcompact car.

Dodge and Chrysler brand passenger cars accounted for 15 per cent of sales at his dealership so far this year.

Ford reported the most June sales in 22 years with a 32 per cent increase in passenger cars, and GM’s Chevrolet Cruze outsold every category of vehicles in the automaker’s lineup except for full-size pickups and small SUVs.

Compact cars were the topselling segment at 23 per cent in 2010, compared to 15 per cent in the U.S., according to DesRosiers and Autodata.

Increasing supply of the Honda Motor Co.’s Civic and Toyota Motor Corp.’s Corolla, after production was hindered by Japan’s March 11 earthquake, should further boost sales of compact cars, J.D. Power’s Robinson said.

“In the Canadian market, you need a strong lineup at the smaller end,” he said.

http://www.timescolonist.com/

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Jul 29, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Most automakers posted big sales gains in Northeast Ohio in June

Auto sales boomed in Northeast Ohio in June with General Motors, Chrysler and Hyundai all posting massive gains, but Japanese automakers Honda and Toyota posted sales declines.

As it has been for most of the past two years, Hyundai was the fastest-growing brand in the region with sales up 49 percent. Chrysler was close behind with a 48 percent jump.

General Motors maintained its sales lead in the region, selling 4,093 cars and trucks, 37 percent more than it did in June of 2010. Hyundai sold 2,606 vehicles last month while Chrysler sold 1,852.

“Growth in sales of new cars and trucks slowed slightly due to tighter inventories of many popular vehicles,” Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers Association President Lou Vitantonio said in a written statement. “Sales are expected to pick back up in July, as dealer inventories return to normal. We expect this trend to continue through August. Credit is more available, and if fuel prices continue to fall, it will only help consumer confidence.”

In May, sales in Northeast Ohio jumped about 27 percent. Last month sales climbed 14 percent.

Ford Motor Co., the automaker that dominated Northeast Ohio sales last year, grew 9 percent in June. Though sales have been strong this year, sharper gains at GM have pushed Ford back to the No. 2 position.

9778000 large Most automakers posted big sales gains in Northeast Ohio in June

Toyota and Honda continued to lag that growth as both companies deal with shortages of vehicles and parts made in Japan in the wake of natural disasters in that country. Honda expects its production to be back to normal by the end of August. Toyota has targeted September or October for a return to normal operations.

Toyota took the biggest hit with sales down 29 percent. Honda sales were off only 4 percent.

Sales of large commercial trucks were much stronger than the rest of the market. At Freightliner, sales more than tripled to 41 vehicles from 13 a year ago. The commercial market as a whole was up 65 percent to 109 vehicles. With such small numbers, a few extra vehicles can lead to huge percentage gains, but sales have increased steadily in the commercial market all year.

http://www.off-roadweb.com/

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Jul 10, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Chrysler idles truck and SUV plants due to Japanese earthquake

Chrysler Group has announced that they would be moving planned summer shutdowns forward at several facilities to conserve parts that could be in short supply, stemming from problems caused by the Japanese earthquake on March 11th.

Chrysler has not stated exactly what parts they are trying to conserve but the company plans to idle plants in Michigan, Ohio and Mexico – all of which produce trucks, SUVs or components for one of the two. These plants all had planned routine downtime later this summer for maintenance, retooling and other tasks required before getting into the next model year production but the automaker has opted to idle these plants earlier than originally expected.

In Michigan, the Warren Truck production facility that builds Ram 1500 and Dakota pickups will be closed the weeks of June 20-24 and June 27-July 1. The original dates for the scheduled downtime at the Warren plant were the weeks of July 11-15 and July 18-22. The production of the Dakota is planned to wind down at the end of this year and while the Ram management has talked about a new small truck that will differentiate itself more from the Ram Truck lineup, no information on this new pickup has been offered.

Next, in Ohio Chrysler will stop production at the Toledo North Assembly Plant for two weeks and the Toledo Supplier Park for one week. Toledo North builds the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro sport utility vehicles and like the scheduled downtime for the Warren, Michigan plant, Toledo North will be shuttered from June 20-24 and June 27-July 1 rather than the weeks of July 11-15 and July 18-22. The Toledo Supplier Park plant builds the Jeep Wrangler and the downtime for that group will take place on June 20-24 rather than July 11-15.

Finally, the Mexican production facility responsible for Ram Trucks has cancelled scheduled overtime for May 20, May 27, June 10, and June 24 rather than having a week of downtime beginning on July 11th.

http://www.torquenews.com/

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May 14, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Chrysler 200 Poised for Summer Breakout?

7338 st0640 051 Chrysler 200 Poised for Summer Breakout?

What with the Eminem Super Bowl commercial and a recent media tempest over a re-edited review, the Chrysler 200 has been getting plenty of attention lately. And it’s also getting a fair number of sales. Customers snapped up 6,750 units of the mid-size sedan in March, representing a 78 percent improvement over the Sebring’s March 2010 performance. The 200 would likely have done even better, too, except that supplies are just now ramping up at dealerships.

There’s a similar story with other key Chrysler Group products, too. Because so many of the automaker’s new/refreshed 2011 vehicles launched in the same general time frame, aligning supply and demand has been a work in progress. But make no mistake, there’s plenty of the latter, and that could have a significant effect on the rest of the company’s 2011 performance, especially as cars like the 200 will obviously be facing reduced competition this summer as a result of the crisis in Japan.

Market Share Update

Here’s an interesting little factoid: While Nissan was trumpeting its new all-time market-share record last month, Chrysler was surpassing that mark and moving ahead of its Japanese rival. Nissan ended March with 9.7 percent of the market, up a robust .7 points over March 2010; Chrysler gained a full 1.1 points on a year-over-year basis—the biggest improvement in the industry last month—to grab 9.8 percent of the U.S. automotive pie. That strong improvement also was enough to allow Chrysler to pass Nissan in terms of market share for the first quarter as a whole.

And again, I’ll emphasize that not only is Chrysler achieving this kind of performance before inventories of its newest products are fully built up, but it’s also doing so without a relevant compact or subcompact car to help catch the growing wave of buyers looking for high-mileage fuel sippers.

The Dodge Caliber has been doing well this year, with first-quarter sales up 25 percent, but that’s based on fewer than 10,000 sales during those first three months of the year. The Fiat 500 attracted exactly 500 customers in March—I wonder if someone planned that?—but the focus here is on style ahead of volume. And that’s pretty much it for the Chrysler Group’s small-car lineup

A Chrysler Conundrum

On the other hand, that doesn’t seem to be a significant issue for buyers—except perhaps at Chrysler itself. Consider: Every single member of the 2011 Dodge, Ram and Jeep lineups achieved a sales jump of at least 15 percent in March except for the Jeep Wrangler, which still moved ahead by 5 percent. Conversely, every single member of the Chrysler division’s lineup lost sales except for the 200, which wasn’t on sale in 2010.

A big part of that, of course, is due to the fact the Chrysler portfolio has effectively shrunk to only three models: The 200, Chrysler 300 and Chrysler Town & Country. (Although It’s true that dealers did manage to sell 540 Chrysler PT Cruisers last month.)

Can Chrysler Out-Lincoln Lincoln?

The Chrysler Group appears to be working the same sort of playbook Ford is using, with Dodge playing the role of high-volume brand (like the Ford division proper) and Chrysler more firmly establishing itself as a premium brand (like Lincoln). But there are a couple of key differences.

The first, and most important, is that Chrysler has done a much better job differentiating cars like the 200 and 300 from their platform-mates, the Dodge Avenger and Dodge Challenger. That means one can expect the same thing to happen when Chrysler gets its counterpart to the Dodge Durango, which would take care of the other crucial difference between Chrysler and Lincoln. While Ford’s luxe division offers a strong crossover entry in the Lincoln MKX, Chrysler is still crossover-free at this stage.

Now, in a normal year, that would be a major obstacle to Chrysler success, regardless of whether you’re talking about the division or the “Group.” But this isn’t a normal year.

Today’s Takeaway

Chrysler found some surprising success in March, even as its lineup appears to be out of whack with the state of the economy, customer preferences and its rivals’ lineups. Yet because those lineups—particularly from the Japanese big three—are going to be hampered by ongoing production problems, strong Chrysler loyalty is sure to continue paying off in strong sales.

http://www.autotropolis.com