July sales down 29%
From the press release:
* Chrysler Town & Country up 24 percent in July; drives total minivan sales 5 percent higher; considered fuel-efficient alternative
* Fuel-efficient Jeep® Patriot is a true success in the market
* Dodge Ram performance improves versus previous month’s sales
* Dodge Avenger sedan continues strong performance
* All-new Dodge Challenger SRT8® hits the streets with excitement
Chrysler LLC Reports July 2008 U.S. Sales - chrysler.com
August 1st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Chrysler might be doing ok on the finance side , but they still need a way to sell cars.Sales will only decline now that chrysler financial wont offer leases.
“Chrysler LLC today announced that in spite of the severe economic and industry challenges, we continue to perform ahead of our financial plan for the second quarter and first half of 2008. The Company measures its financial performance against two primary financial metrics: Cash/Marketable Securities and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and restructuring charges). As of June 30, 2008, the Company had Cash/Marketable Securities of $11.7 billion, (including $2.3 billion in Restricted Cash and excluding $2.3 billion in VEBA* assets), well ahead of its plan and down slightly from year-end 2007. As well, for the six months ended June 30, 2008, Chrysler posted an EBITDA of approximately $1.1 billion, well ahead of plan.
“The Company remains ahead of its financial plan due primarily to Chrysler’s fast response to the deteriorating market conditions and its cost reduction initiatives launched in 2007, focused largely on restructuring its operations. Those efforts have kept the Company ahead of the overall market developments.
“Chrysler’s negative product mix, largely driven by trucks and SUVs, was off-set in the first half with a positive mix which includes the effects from substantially reduced fleet sales; the effects of new products—the all-new Chrysler and Dodge minivans, Dodge Journey and Jeep® Liberty, and the elimination of unprofitable models (Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible, Pacifica and Crossfire and the Dodge Magnum).”
August 1st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Nissan passed chrysler in sales. Who would have ever thought?
98,000 is a disgrace.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:37 pm
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/275302/18/
Ah, perspective: thiis AP article has to be viewed in the context of: (1) Chrysler’s 29% sales decline over July of ‘07; (2) the the price of gasoline and the sorry condition of the entire automotive industry; (3) the economy is in the toilet.
August 1st, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Brutal.
DSR for Chrysler and Jeep down 44% YoY.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:13 pm
DSR?
August 1st, 2008 at 9:20 pm
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-01-2007/0004637388&EDATE=
Still more perspective.This time from Honda. It’s July sales totaled 141,049, down 3.290%, but sale of Honda cars were actually yup by 5.9%, reaching 71,755 in July.
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:43 am
“All-new Dodge Challenger SRT8® hits the streets with excitement”
I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooexcited. NOT.
August 2nd, 2008 at 4:10 pm
“Lifetime PowerTrain Warranty” “New Day Promotion” “2.99 Gas Promotion” and now “Shop Til You Drop”
WOW, I’m so happy I could FART!
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
It’s “Shop till you Drive” Rich and it really sucks big time.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
When the factory advertises a new Dodge Ram pickup for sale for 40% off you know the pricing is really screwed.
Don’t you think it crushes the value of the Ram’s when they misprice the market so badly??
How about Internet customers who have to try to figure out all the stupid incentives.
Please give us some simplified pricing for Lido’s sake!
August 4th, 2008 at 1:53 am
There’s not much profit in small cars even if they could sell everyone they build.
The new Ram and possible Challenger could stablize sales for a short period until tax time.
Small market dealers are all ready making deals on the SRT8s available to them no sales just lookers for they’re Challengers so far.
Lots of desire for the vechile but no money to put up.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:56 am
MoPar you just wonder how they comes up with this lame stuff.
Hey our $40,000.00 Ram Truck really isn’t worth $40,000.00 cause it’s really worth 40% off msrp. Is the New 2009 Ram going to be 40% off when it comes out?
Lurch you are right on the money.
With the current credit situation people arn’t able to purchase vehicles using equity lines and second mortgages. That has lead to discounting of the 2008 Challenger SRT-8.
Lots of desire no coin!
August 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
The proof of Chrysler’s horrible marketing this summer is in the small car numbers. They are all selling horribly, while the rest of the small car market is in boom times.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Another reason for the slump in sales…even Toyota dipped big time..It is tougher to get credit ie:bank loans,Chrysler Financial..ect. For a while they would lend money to just about anyone with no money down,bad credit,repo’s those people did not own a home,so they couldnt even slap it on their mortgage,because they rented.Its getting back to the days of a big down payment to be able to buy a car.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:49 am
The car payment argument might be true for SUV’s and large cars.
But when Ford is selling 20K Focus’s and Chevy is selling 25K Cobalts, and Toyota can’t keep Carolla’s on the lots, Chrysler should NOT be seeing 40% drops for Caliber, Sebring, Compass, PT. And it should not be seeing Avenger and Patriot selling 4K units.
Small car market is growing fast, but Chrysler is being left by the wayside because nobody knows about Chrysler’s small cars, and if they do, they are not be marketed at all.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Alex
Chrysler’s small cars are crap, that is why the Germans sold the company to Cerberus.
Caliber-Patroit-Compass sticker for 20k plus. I park an Avenger next to an SE Plus package Charger and the folks by the Charger every time.
The Internet tells the consumer are cars are crap, so why would Chrysler expect a left in small sales when even Jim Press says are small cars our crap.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Alex its 15% for cars, 25% for minivans, and 40% for trucks. Where does the suv fit in?
That still leaves a possible 6% profit and only about 1.5% to the dealers. Of course this may only apply to the 08s collecting dust.
Miss imformation is just as dangerous as none at all. Chrysler’s full of miss imformation right now, thanks marketing!
Any one see the great press the Castrol commerical gave Chrysler. Red Charger against black Charger to see which oil survives the torture test.
Dummy at my gas station ask if the cars would really blow their engine that easily and that he knew Chargers were junk.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Rich, I meant that Avenger, Patriot only moved like 4000 units (4K). Cobalt and Focus are moving at 20,000 units per month +. Carolla sold 38,0000 units last month.
Chryslers sales numbers for small car are falling like a stone, when the rest of the small car market is holding steady or climbing.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Oil is coming down off its high’s, we’ll have to see how low it goes.
If it drops too fast then our economy is in a world of hurt, if it drops steady then the economy will rebound and all this talk about small car sales will go away.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Rich. How could falling oil prices hurt the economy??? That is crazy talk!!! Lower oil prices = lower gas prices. Lower gas prices are good for the economy and good for Chrysler. Come on man!
August 5th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Oil doesn’t seem to be hurting the other maker’s small car lineups - See the below…. They are all increasing as people move towards fuel efficiency, except Chrysler is being left out in the cold.
The top half of the list are the small cars from other makers. None of them sold less that 7200 units, all but one of them showed a significant increase year over year.
Compare that with the bottom half of the list, which is Chrysler’s small car lineup. Not a single car sold over 4800 units, and they mostly showed huge declines year over year. The Patriot and Avenger showed very small increased but are selling in tiny volumes, so who cares?
The proof is in the pudding. The small car market is the hot market right now, sales are increasing for everyone, except Chrysler. That needs to be rectified YESTERDAY!!!!! START SELLING CARS!
Model sales +/-
Focus 15,200 + 15.6
Cobalt 16,410 + 3.5
Aveo 7,215 + 16.9
Yaris 8,126 - 2.1
Corolla 34,438 + 7.0
Fit 12,266 + 78.5
Accord 41,382 + 2.8
Sebring 3,816 - 31.0
PT Cruiser 3,297 - 54.0
Compass 1,401 - 46.0
Patriot 3,451 + 4.0
Caliber 4,807 - 9.0
Avenger 4,318 - 2.0