Chrysler leads in growth for July 2011 lead by Jeep

The Detroit Big 3 all showed growth through July 2011 compared to the same month one year ago but thanks to a gain of 20%, the Chrysler Group beat their cross town rivals and all other major automotive groups with the closest competition being the BMW Group at 11.7%. With 112,026 total vehicles sold throughout the month of July, Chrysler ranked fourth overall in terms of sales volume, trailing General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Toyota while distancing themselves quite a bit from Nissan Motors and American Honda.

The Fiat brand once again posted a monthly sales record as they sold 3,038 subcompact 500s last month – an improvement of 68% over last month. This brings the total sales of the new Fiat 500 to 7,982 units.

The top brand for the Chrysler Group in terms of growth was the Jeep lineup, boasting the best growth rate in the industry with an improvement of 46%. The Jeep brand was lead in growth by the redesigned Compass, which grew 240% in selling 4,430 compact SUVs last month. Next in line was the Jeep Grand Cherokee at 76% followed by the sporty Wrangler at 43% while the Liberty and Patriot finished off the group with 19% and 7% improvements over last July. Things are very clearly going smoothly for the Jeep brand with bold new styling and a powerful yet efficient engine lineup helping the Trail Rated SUV brand of the Chrysler Group to steam along. We can expect these numbers to continue to improve as Jeep plugs the Pentastar engine into the top-selling Wrangler – bringing more power and fuel economy to their most popular model. Also, with a total of 38,691 vehicles sold; Jeep was also the top brand of the Chrysler Group in terms of monthly sales.

The Dodge brand was next in terms of growth for July 2011 with a 9% improvement over the same month in 2010. While Dodge showed growth, it was actually a fairly slow month for the lineup of sporty cars, vans and SUVs with seven of their nine available products showing a decline compared to last year. However, the new Dodge Durango continues to fly out of dealership lots with an incredible improvement of 53,540% . You read that right – fifty-three thousand, five hundred and forty percent. The Dodge Caliber was the only other vehicle showing positive growth in July 2011 with an improvement of 14% while the next “best” was the Avenger at just -2%. The Dodge Caravan lineup was the top dog in terms of sales volume with 6,485 minivans sold while the Durango was second with 5,364 and the Charger was third with 5,344 units sold last month. With 33,653 units sold last month, Dodge ranked second in terms of sales among the Chrysler Group.

The Chrysler brand was next in line from the automotive group that bears its name, with the luxury brand posting a 5% gain over July 2010. The new Chrysler 200 lead the company in sales volume with 6,509 sedans sold last month – an improvement of over 200% compared to the sales of the Chrysler Sebring that the 200 replaced. The redesigned Chrysler 300 was second in terms of growth with an improvement of 6% compared to last year with 2,415 sedans sold while the Town & Country lineup was the second best in terms of sales volume with 6,503 units sold; a decline of 20% from last year.
The Ram Truck brand brought up the rear as the group formerly known as Dodge trucks saw a decline of less than 1%, dropping from 21,239 in July 2010 to 21,217 in July 2011. The Ram Pickup once again lead the way in terms of growth (1%) and sales (20,311) while the Dakota dropped to just 906 units – a decline of 17% compared to last year. The Ram Truck brand is expected to unveil the replacement for the Dodge Dakota within the next few months and when they do, they hope to see the smaller of the Ram Trucks bring in more sales to support the Ram Pickup.

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