On paper, August 2010 was a rough month with almost every major auto group showing a loss from last August but Chrysler continued to push forward as the only American automotive group to show growth last month. If you recall, in August of 2009, the Cash 4 Clunkers process was going full speed ahead and the boom in sales from that program bears a hefty burden in this month’s apparent decline in sales growth. Unfortunately, the number of Japanese brands in the red this month (Honda, Toyota, Nissan) shows how much Cash 4 Clunkers helped the foreign companies rather than the domestics. Chrysler, who reportedly was the company least benefited by Cash 4 Clunkers, has continued to climb out of the recession – selling almost 100,000 vehicles this month. This still makes them the smallest of the Big 3 in terms of overall sales but the fact that they have maintained growth over the past few months without any new models serves to brighten the light at the end of the tunnel. Along with being the only American auto group to show growth, they were bested only by Jaguar/Land Rover.
Jeep was the strongest performer in terms of growth for August 2010 with a 17% improvement over last August. The Wrangler was the top seller with 7,666 units sold followed by the 2011 Grand Cherokee with just less than 6,400 sold. The Jeep Patriot was the best in terms of growth with 57% more Patriot’s sold this year than last.
The Dodge (cars) brand was the next best with a year over year growth of 8% and a company-leading sales volume of 35,364. Not surprisingly, the Caravan was the best seller with 9,219 units sold and the Dodge Charger was second with 6,586 sold in August. The Dodge Challenger only managed 3,283 sales last month but that presents an improvement of almost 200% over 2009, in a month where the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro saw negative growth.
The Ram truck brand was next in line, with an overall growth of 5% in August. Of the 20,604 “trucks” sold last month, 1,583 of them were Dakotas, 26 were Sprinters and the other 18,995 were Ram pickups. It should be noted that if not for the 98% decline in sales from the defunct Mercedes-built Sprinter, the Ram brand would have had much prettier numbers this month as the Dakota saw an overall growth of 55%.
Pulling up the rear for the company in August sales growth was Chrysler with a negative growth of 4%. While it’s disappointing to see a brand in the red, the good news is that of all of the companies that saw negative growth, Chrysler had the lowest percentage. It doesn’t help the brand much that their only three vehicles right now are the Town & Country (which sells very well), the somewhat stale 300, and the Sebring – a car that was one of the worst ranked in owner satisfaction. Chrysler did manage to move 976 more PT Cruisers off the lots since announcing the end of production. We know that the refresh to the 300 is coming and it can’t come soon enough.
The fact that the Chrysler Group showed growth last month is great news and things are likely to continue improving as they plan to unveil a variety of vehicles in the next few months. Those new model debuts began today with the 2011 Dodge Durango and in the coming weeks I would expect to see a shot of the civilian issue 2011 Charger and the 2011 Chrysler 300 – if not more.
Check out the gallery below for a look at a couple of the new 2011 Dodge vehicles and stay tuned to your Detroit Autos Examiner for all of your breaking news from around town and around the world!
For more current Dodge news, check out these links:
Dodge fully unveils the 2011 Durango Performance SUV
The 2011 Dodge Durango is official
2011 Dodge Durango SRT8 with the 6.4L Hemi coming?
2012 Dodge Durango/Magnum picture hits the web
Dodge unveils the 2011 Charger
2011 Dodge Charger exposed online ahead of release
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