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The top three Chrysler vehicles in Canada

Chrysler Canada started off 2012 with a bang. Sales in January were up 21.9 per cent and, for the first time in memory, Chrysler was the No. 1 car company in Canada by sales. Market share hit an astonishing 16.9 per cent, well ahead of Ford of Canada at 15.4 per cent. In 2011, Ford was No. 1 in Canada by sales.

“Chrysler has been one of the fastest if not the fastest-growing brand the last two years and this has finally translated into Chrysler becoming the number one seller of light vehicles in Canada in January,” said auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers in a note to clients.

“[Chrysler] displaced Ford from the number one position even though Ford had a pretty good month with sales up 4.6 per cent from a high base a year ago. Last February, they did this and were not able to maintain the position all year but it is a fantastic start to the year for Chrysler.”

Until new models with big sales-volume potential arrive – cars like the 2013 Dodge Dart – Chrysler remains dependent on a small handful of vehicles for the bulk of its sales. About two-thirds of all Chrysler Canada sales came from just three models: the Ram pickup, the Dodge Caravan minivan and the Dodge Journey crossover wagon.

“Chrysler had a great year (in 2011) with light trucks with the Dodge Ram and Dodge Caravan finishing the year as the second- and third best-selling light trucks in Canada and the Dodge Journey was in the seventh position,” says DesRosiers. “Both the Ram and Journey saw sales increase while Caravan fell back just a little.”

Chrysler’s heavy reliance on three models will only start to ease when the Dart and a raft of other Fiat-based models go on sale. The Dart will arrive by the middle of this year, followed next year by a number of other Fiat-based models:

Chrysler brand:

compact car and a replacement for the current 200.
Dodge:

the Dart, a subcompact car and a mid-size car.
Jeep:

subcompact and compact vehicles are coming, along with a replacement for the Liberty SUV and perhaps the debut of a Grand Wagoneer.
Ram:

the Ram pickup will be re-engineered, and small and large vans are coming.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

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Feb 12, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post

2011 sales are heavy on light trucks

DETROIT — Nearly two of every three vehicles the Detroit Three have sold this year are light trucks, but more fuel-efficient engines, smaller crossover models and seasonal patterns indicate this isn’t a return to the bad old days, say analysts and dealers.

Pickup trucks, SUVs, crossovers and, in Chrysler’s case, minivans accounted for 65.8 percent of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler 2011 sales through November, according to Autodata. That’s up from 64 percent last year and the domestic automakers’ heaviest truck concentration since 66.3 percent in 2004.

“What is different than in the past for the domestic automakers is that they’re selling a lot of smaller SUVs — Ford Escape was the best-selling compact SUV in November,” said Jessica Caldwell, a sales analyst with Edmunds.com. “Jeep Compass has done really well for Chrysler, as has Equinox for Chevrolet.”

For perspective, light trucks made up 46.7 percent of Honda’s U.S. sales through November; 45.3 percent of Toyota’s; 34.4 percent of Nissan’s and only 20.3 percent of Hyundai’s.

Does this matter?

Not much when gas is selling for less than $3.50 a gallon, said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with TrueCar.com.

“There is a risk if gasoline climbs back above $4 a gallon,” Toprak said.

Pickups and SUVs sell well in the winter, especially in northern states. But the other factor driving this light-truck surge is pent-up demand.

“What is different than in the past for the domestic automakers is that they’re selling a lot of smaller SUVs — Ford Escape was the best-selling compact SUV in November,” said Jessica Caldwell, a sales analyst with Edmunds.com.

“Small businesses, who are a big part of the market for pickups and vans, tend to wait longer for the dust to settle in the economy before they make their purchase decisions,” Toprak said. “But when they see signs of life, these buyers tend to start a bit of a chain reaction.”

Some pundits argue that Detroit is falling into old habits.

“For all of the talk of cutting costs to eke profits out of sedans and compacts, trucks are still the profit center,” wrote Jordan Weissman, a blogger at the Atlantic Monthly.

That overlooks some major innovations.

First, GM actually increased the percentage of sales from passenger cars this year, thanks largely to its compact Chevrolet Cruze. Second, the powertrains of pickups and SUVs have changed dramatically.

Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service, boasted that 51 percent of the F-150 pickups sold in November were powered by a V6 engine. As recently as a year ago, nearly all F-150s had V8 engines under the hood. Ford also offers a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine as a choice on its hot-selling Explorer.

In addition, certain types of trucks have attractive rebates or discounted financing.

“You can get a decently equipped GMC Sierra for less than $300 a month,” said Todd McCallum, operations director for LaFontaine Automotive Group.

What happens if gas prices approach $4 a gallon again?

“The domestic companies have small car options that are very competitive where they weren’t in the past,” said Jeff Schuster, head of forecasting for LMC Automotive.

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Dec 24, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Auto Sales Surge in November

Major U.S. automakers reported significant sales growth last month, marking the largest gains in over two years and boosting the prospects for strong year-end performance through the holiday season.

United States car manufacturers posted major sales increases in November, with buyers purchasing new vehicles at the fastest rate since the “cash for clunkers” program in August 2009. Lower fuel costs, rising consumer confidence, the need to replacing aging cars and the availability of attractive deals all contributed to the November boost.

“With analysts projecting that December will be even better, the industry is closing the year strong despite continued sluggishness in the nation’s economy,” the New York Times notes. “Consumers and businesses are finding they can no longer put off replacing their vehicles, which are now an average of almost 11 years old, a record.”

According to automotive-industry tracking firm Autodata, U.S. light vehicle sales — including passenger cars and light trucks — rose to 994,721 in November, a 13.9 percent increase over November 2010. Sales totaled 11.5 million units through the first 11 months of the year, 10.4 percent more than in the same period last year.

Moreover, the industry’s annualized selling rate (seasonally adjusted) climbed to 13.63 million vehicles in November, the highest level in more than two years.

The largest gains last month were by Chrysler Group LLC, which last week reported a sales total of 107,172, a 45 percent increase over the same month in 2010 and the sixth consecutive month of sales gains exceeding 20 percent. So far this year, Chrysler has sold 1.23 million vehicles, up 25 percent over the same period last year.

“November was another huge month for the Chrysler Group and our highest year-over-year sales gain of 2011,” Reid Bigland, president and CEO of the Dodge brand and head of Chrysler’s U.S. sales, said in an announcement of the results.

Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. sold 166,865 vehicles in November, a 13 percent increase over November 2010. Ford’s November U.S. retail sales also increased 20 percent over the prior year, the company’s largest year-over-year gain in nine months. So far this year, Ford has sold 1.94 million units, 11.1 percent more than in the same period in 2010. The company plans to increase vehicle production in the first quarter of 2012 by 3 percent.

“[C]onsumers continue to value fuel economy — no matter what size or kind of vehicle best meets their needs,” Ken Czubay, vice president of U.S. marketing, sales and service at Ford, said in a release of the findings. “Most Ford products deliver best-in-class fuel economy and provide customers an opportunity to choose what best works for them — EcoBoost technology or electrified vehicles.”

General Motors Co. last week reported November sales of 180,402 vehicles, up 7 percent from November 2010. Retail sales were up 15 percent year-over-year, while fleet sales fell 14 percent. So far this year, GM has sold 2.27 million vehicles, 14 percent more than during the same period last year.

“We are seeing a broad spectrum of customers return to the market,” Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales operations, said in an announcement. “Truck sales showed a very solid increase, as we expected, but the momentum building behind our most fuel-efficient vehicles was even stronger.”

The strong sales performance among U.S. automakers last month indicates that the automotive industry has rebounded from its recessionary low and the economy as a whole is benefiting from increased consumer demand and spending.

“Excluding the Clunkers spike, it was the best month since before the financial market meltdown in September 2008. Industry experts said buyers appear ready to finally look past the various uncertainties in the general economy and start buying cars once again,” CNN.com reports. “November sales gains were led by domestic automakers, which are in position to all gain market share in the same year for the first time in decades.”

Sales gains weren’t confined to domestic car manufacturers, as Toyota Motor Co., the world’s largest automaker, also posted growth in November, with U.S. sales rising to 137,960 units, a 6.7 percent unadjusted increase over November 2010. So far this year, Toyota has sold 1.47 million vehicles, down 7.5 percent from the same period in 2010.

“A better selection of cars at Toyota showrooms also brought more shoppers back into the market. Many buyers spent the summer waiting for those inventories to improve after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan squeezed supplies,” the Associated Press reports.

With November sales of 85,182 units in the U.S., Nissan Motor Co. last week reported a 19.4 percent year-over-year increase. Meanwhile, Honda Motor Co. sales fell to 83,925, a 10.1 decrease, largely due to flooding in Thailand that disrupted the company’s North American production rates.

http://news.thomasnet.com/

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Dec 11, 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.

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Jul 29, 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.”

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Jun 05, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post

Edmonton Dodge Ram

The top three Chrysler vehicles in Canada

Chrysler brand:

Dodge:

Jeep:

Ram:

2011 sales are heavy on light trucks

Chrysler tops Ford in light truck sales

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

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