Comments on: Chrysler to Cut Fleet Sales to “Just” 20 Percent

By: jaje

jaje — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:01:12 +0000

Yeah, yeah Chrysler invented the minivan and stayed ahead of its domestic competition pathetic attempts at minivans until 1998 when its first serious competition in the Honda Odyssey came to being. Not too much longer the Sienna became a true full size competitor too. That’s 3 viable alternatives in a shrinking market (yep for the past 5 years minivan sales have been dropping to the point well below 1M a year). The Caravan won’t see 400k likely ever again unless the stigma of owning a “minivan” gets soccer moms out of their CUVs.

By: Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:38:30 +0000

If there is one product where Chrysler still gets the benefit of the doubt, it has to be with Minivan. I am going to assume that at least 3/4’s of the 36K in Dec mini sales came from the retail side, unless I see hard evidence to the contrary. Chrysler has been advertising heavily, and the early reviews have generally been pretty positive. Additionaly, Odyssey doesn’t match up to the new Chrysler in terms of features.

Maybe it is okay to give credit where credit is due.

By: SherbornSean

SherbornSean — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:41:02 +0000

Maybe Chrysler should go in the opposite direction of GM and Ford and embrace fleet sales. In fact, Chrysler should engineer its vehicles specifically for the fleet market.

They could do it by making the interior out of the cheapest plastics possible. They could skimp on engineering, since no one keeps a rental more than a couple of years, and drive out cost/quality throughout the entire production process.

Oh, wait, Chrysler already does that. Brilliant.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:48:39 +0000

How many of those minivan sales are to fleets? Unusual that December would be slow for all automakers but the Voyager increases 51%.

By: Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:29:42 +0000

Also, just an FYI….The Dodge Caravan outsold the Honda Odyssey in December to retain the crown of #1 minivan. A 51% December jump, coupled with a 7% decline by Odyssey and Caravan wins again.

In fact, the Odyssey nearly slipped to third place in December sales as the Town & Country’s 31% increase nearly put it into the #2 spot.

How does 400 thousand minivans flying out the door in 2008 sound? Sounds like positive market share to me.

By: Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:03:29 +0000

“To the scrying eye, Press is preparing the press for a [rapid and continuing] decline in Chrysler’s ‘08 market share.”

Have you seen January’s sales numbers? With a new 300 and a new Ram coming in 09 along with a Challenger & Journey and extremely successful (see 36K in Dec sales) minivans, and solid Jeep lineup, Chrysler may do okay. And throw in Press and his “Project D” to fix the Sebring/Avenger.

http://www.media.chrysler.com/newsrelease.do?id=7561&mid=1

By: jaje

jaje — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:36:21 +0000

There are 2 methods of selling cars to commerical fleets. One is factory direct such as to rental agencies and likely government and very large corporations. These are the “fleet” sales they advertise and are trying to lower.

The flip end is dealers also sell cars to fleets and commerical customers. In fact many dealers sell >50% commercially and at very low prices (< retail) but these are never counted as “fleet” in the MFGRs tabulations and instead considered “retail”. The reason I see this is that my friend’s business buys 20-40 company trucks at time at least once a year to rollout older vehicles which get traded in an go to wholesale. He deals exclusively with “retail” dealer and gets them for a very, very low price (though likely not as cheap as factory direct).

B/c of this I see the MFGR’s model changing. Fleet sales directly from MFGR will be absorbed two fold – rental fleets holding cars longer (and charging customers more) – and many former fleets that purchased direct from the MFGR will now start buying from dealers at a slightly higher price (as maintenance gets too expensive). The MFGR wins b/c they now claim “retail” sale and advertise that their reduction in fleets sales are working and retail sales have increased.

By: Matthew Danda

Matthew Danda — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:38:50 +0000

I almost bought a Magnum last year, when shopping for a non-SUV family car. However, I couldn’t stomach getting under 20MPG in a non-truck-based vehicle.

By: Samir Syed

Samir Syed — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:29:27 +0000

I have never seen an Avenger that did not have a rental car company sticker on the rear bumper (except on TV… in a Dodge ad)

By: N85523

N85523 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:16:25 +0000

The Crossfire figure seems high and I can’t pick out why unless it sells in very small numbers and many of those go to rental outfits for their “fun-car” segment or something along those lines.

By: Frank Williams

Frank Williams — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:49:52 +0000

Blunozer :
Unbelievable.
79% of Avengers go to rentals? If that doesn’t prove it a failure, I don’t know what does.

These are figures for the first half of ‘07, before the new Avenger was introduced. The numbers for fleet sales for the last half of the year aren’t out so the new one might not be as high.

By: Sherman Lin

Sherman Lin — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:45:22 +0000

I’d summarize Chryslers problem with this question. How could anyone in the market for midsize car pick a Sebring versus a Camry, Accord, Fusion, Malibu or a Sonata?

Their newest car is a big steaming pile of you know what.

By: Blunozer

Blunozer — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:44:44 +0000

Unbelievable.

79% of Avengers go to rentals? If that doesn’t prove it a failure, I don’t know what does.

I guess the good news here is the fire sale prices you can find a V6 Magnum, a highly underappreciated car.