Chrysler 200 Poised for Summer Breakout?
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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
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