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Dec 11, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Truck Sales Continue to Grow

Despite the drop in consumer confidence and less-than-glowing economic reports in September, sales of medium-duty trucks continued to grow at a steady pace.

Truck makers reported selling 240,356 new medium-duty (Classes 3-7) trucks through September, 24% more than over the same time last year, according to figures released Thursday from WardsAuto.com.

With two exceptions, the year-over-year growth rate has been holding relatively steady in the low- to mid-20% range throughout much of the year. The exceptions were in January, when truck makers reported selling 18% more units than in January 2010, and in February, when year-over-year sales jumped 32%.

Individually, Hino Trucks and Peterbilt Motors both recorded the biggest gains, selling 46% more trucks each through the first nine months this year than in the same period in 2010. Freightliner also had a healthy sales gain of 38% over this time compared with 2010.

Navistar Inc.’s International brand reported selling 24,994 Classes 6 and 7 trucks through September, giving it a 40% share of that market segment. Freightliner was next with 34% of sales in those classes, according to WardsAuto.com.

Chrysler’s Ram Trucks and Ford Motor Co. continue to outpace all manufacturers.

Ram is the leader with 31% of all sales in Classes 3-7, thanks to its dominance in Class 3 where it captured 50% of the sales through September. Ford Motor Co. is second with 30% of sales in Classes 3-7. Ford’s share of Class 3 sales, where it used to lead, is now at 31%, but it sells units in every medium-duty class while Ram reports sales only in Classes 3 and 5.

http://www.ttnews.com/

edmontonram.com

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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’s U.S. sales up 10%, Ford flat, GM, Japanese brands down

Auto sales fell in May for the first time in eight months as the full impact of the production shocks in Japan created shortages of new cars and trucks.

The market’s retreat after months of double-digit sales gains was exacerbated by high fuel prices, which stoked demand for fuel-efficient small cars — which have been in short supply since Japan was struck by natural disasters March 11.

Most auto executives predicted sales will rebound once inventories are restored, pointing to pent-up demand despite concerns about the recovery.

“Looking at the economy, we continue to think the recovery remains on track, but we see some challenges,” said Don Johnson, vice president for U.S. sales at General Motors Co.

U.S. auto sales fell 3.7 percent to 1.06 million vehicles in May from 1.1 million a year earlier. The lost output resulting from supply disruptions in Japan, estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 vehicles last month, more than makes up the difference.

“If you take the Japanese out, the seasonally adjusted annualized rate is very close to the April level” of more than 13 million vehicle sales, Johnson said.

Although the selling pace slowed in May to an anemic 11.8 million cars and light trucks, GM and Ford Motor Co. left their full-year sales forecasts unchanged at around 13 million vehicles.

Among the big players, only Chrysler Group LLC and Hyundai Motor Co. reported gains in the monthly sales report, which was skewed by the different number of selling days: 24, down from 26 a year earlier.

GM’s sales slipped 1 percent, and Ford’s edged down 0.3 percent. Toyota Motor Corp.’s sales plunged 33.4 percent, placing Japan’s biggest automaker in fourth place in the U.S. market behind Chrysler. The Auburn Hills automaker’s sales were up 10.1 percent.

Toyota and Honda, fixtures in the list of the top 10 selling autos, dropped out altogether in May. The only Asian models in the list were the Nissan Altima and Hyundai Sonata.

Hyundai’s sales surged 20.7 percent, while Volkswagen AG reported a 24 percent rise in May, when it marked its return to the United States as a local manufacturer with the opening of a plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Overall, the European brands performed strongly in May, increasing sales 22.7 percent and boosting their combined market share to 9.9 percent, up 2.1 points.

With gas prices off their peaks but still high, European carmakers are benefiting from their diesel and other fuel-saving technologies. Jonathan Browning, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America, said he didn’t expect the price of gas to subside much in the near term, “and in the long term, it’ll continue to increase.”

High gas prices weighed on demand for big pickups. Their sales fell 12.7 percent in May.

But of all the factors contributing to May’s results, gas prices were the least important, said Jeff Schuster, a forecaster at J.D. Power and Associates. “The story in May is the incentive pullback as well as the real and perceived vehicle shortages.”

Automakers have scaled back on profit-eroding incentives in recent months. Compared with last May, incentives are down more than $500 on average to $2,303 per vehicle, according to Autodata Corp.

Sales executives said consumers seemed concerned that they wouldn’t get good deals because of the shortages of vehicles. “Early in the month, consumers sat on their hands,” Johnson said.

With few vehicles to sell in May, Toyota lowered its discounts to $1,408 per vehicle. “We dialed back in our marketing in all forms,” said Bob Carter, general manager of the Toyota brand division at Toyota Motor Sales USA.

But with production in Japan now picking up, Toyota announced deals Wednesday for both Lexus and Toyota-brand vehicles in June, including zero interest for 60 months on the Toyota Camry midsize sedan.

The deals apply both to vehicles in stock and models on order. “We want to retain loyal customers who may not be able to get exactly what they want,” said Mark Templin, general manager of the Lexus division in North America.

According to a J.P. Morgan study, Japanese vehicle production bottomed in April, with domestic output down 60 percent at less than 300,000 vehicles.

But Japanese automakers say they now expect to restore output faster than they first predicted when they said it might take until the end of the year.

Over the next couple of months, the U.S. selling pace might stay below 13 million vehicles, on an annualized basis, GM’s Johnson said. “But once inventory starts to build, that’s when we’ll get back above 13 million.”

http://www.detnews.com

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Jun 05, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

New Ram Truck: More Macho For The Money?

: Chrysler Group LLC; The coming Ram Express pickup truck is aimed at young, first-time buyers.

Chrysler Group’s Ram truck brand has settled on a name for the next permutation of its full-size pickup truck. The new version, aimed at first-time buyers, will be called the Ram 1500 Express.

If you guessed the truck would be called the Adventurer you were not alone. The company in February said it was working on a possible new model using that codename. And if you ask me, the name better captures what people love about pickups and what compels young drivers, males in particular, to buy them whether they need them or not.

Ram says the idea behind the Express was to offer a large truck with a V8 engine and enough features to help it avoid the stripped-down-truck characterization. The new truck, which reaches dealerships later in the second quarter of this year, is essentially a replacement for the outgoing mid-size Dakota model the company used to court young buyers for the last two decades.

What Ram and other truck makers have found is that people shopping for pickups generally want a big vehicle and the rugged, resourceful and macho image that comes with them. Smaller trucks, while more than capable enough to handle most buyers’ requirements, completely lack the feeling of toughness and invulnerability people seem to feel at the wheel of a large truck.

Rivals Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. have also shifted marketing efforts away from smaller trucks in favor of their more appealing and profitable large models. Ram says the Express, which comes in a regular-cab, short-bed configuration, will start at $23,830 including a $975 destination charge. It is meant in part to undercut similar trucks from Ford and GM.

Now, back to the name. Ram, formerly Dodge, used the “Express” moniker on a 1978 truck called the “Li’l Red Express.” It had bright red paint, a logo with its name on the door and big-rig style vertical exhaust pipes that rose above the passenger cab.

Even as an 11-year-old caught up in the heart of the disco era, I thought the Express was super-cheesy. Of course, I’m now many years outside the company’s target demographic, and the new truck looks better than the old version. Still, I wish Ram had stuck with “Adventurer.”

http://blogs.wsj.com

Edmonton Dodge Ram

http://edmontonram.com/

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Apr 13, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Chrysler momentum builds

WINDSOR, Ont. — May proved to be a stellar selling month for Chrysler Group LLC on both sides of the border as the Auburn Hills, Mich., company reported Wednesday that sales rose by a robust 33 per cent compared to the same period last year.

In fact Chrysler’s monthly sales increase exceeded those of both Ford Motor Co., and General Motors, which posted hikes of 22 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.

“May was another positive sign as sales momentum continues to build for Chrysler Group, exceeding the 100,000 unit threshold for the first time in more than a year,” said Fred Diaz, president and CEO, Ram Truck Brand and Lead Executive for U.S. Sales. “The company continues to show improvement each month, with May being our strongest month this year, exceeding overall industry growth for the second month in a row.”

In Canada, the automaker boasted a 53 per cent hike in sales last month — an increase driven by demand for such vehicles as the Windsor-assembled Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town and Country as well as the Dodge Journey, Ram pickup, Jeep Wrangler and Brampton-produced Dodge Challenger.

American consumers flocked to both the Caravan and Town and Country, boosting minivan sales by 66 per cent and 68 per cent respectively.

Dodge Caliber, Dodge Avenger Sedan and Dodge Charger sales each increased by triple digit percentages last month compared to May 2009.

Chrysler’s results beat analysts’ forecasts, which pegged the sales hike at 28 per cent.

However, the corporation, which just last year had filed for bankruptcy protection, is falling behind the pack in the race to introduce new products.

Chrysler’s product replacement rate is lower than that of competitors such as Ford, GM and Honda, said a new report by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The report is based on the premise that replacement rate and vehicle showroom age are the major driver of market gains and losses.

“Detroit has replaced its lineup every seven to eight years while the competition has done so about every five years — we believe this is one of the main reasons Ford, Chrysler and GM has lost share,” the report said.

While Chrysler is expected to improve its replacement rate from 14 per cent to 24 per cent over the next four years, the company still lags behind the industry, said John Murphy, the report’s author. Chrysler’s market share is expected to drop two points to 6.9 per cent. “Chrysler products are likely to have a tough time in a competitive market, which may pressure market share,” he said. “A relative lack of investment by previous owners has driven an apparent need to play catchup in a very competitive market.”

Ford is expected to gain two points of market share over the next four years, reaching 17 per cent to 18 per cent, while GM will retain its current share of 18 per cent to 19 per cent. “We believe (Ford’s gain) will be driven by the relative strength of its product launches, which are increasingly leveraging Ford’s global platforms.

http://www.windsorstar.com