Chrysler July Sales Rise Five Percent, Remain Below 95k "Survival Volume"

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Set the way-back machine to our July 2009 Chrysler Group sales post, and a certain amount of deja-vu might just set in. Last Summer, Chrysler’s version of success was a mere single-digit percentage volume decline. This July, Chrysler’s big accomplishment was a five percent improvement over last July’s number. Last July we thought the Chrysler brand in particular was “toast,” and based on this July’s numbers, we can’t say we’ve found much to change that opinion, as ChryCo’s eponymous brand dropped 11 percent year-over-year, and shed over 3k units of volume compared to June. Chrysler Town & Country outsold the rest of the brand alone at 8,083 units, an 18 percent gain.

Meanwhile, ChryCo’s other “volume brand” Dodge literally sold one more car than it did in last year’s Cash-for-Clunker-fueled July. Yes, Jeep and Ram are growing compared to last month and last July, but together they combine for fewer than 50k units. And all told, Chrysler Group once again combined for fewer than 95k units, selling only 93,313. If you average Chrysler’s 620,532 year-to-date sales over the last seven months, you find that the bailed-out automaker is running about 6,500 units per month behind the volume number that its CEO gave as a “survival number.” CEO Sergio Marchionne may have “never missed a target” but right now he’s on track to come up a solid 37k units short of his 1.1m 2010 sales goal (non-seasonally-adjusted). Considering the razor-thing margin for that 2010 volume target, Chrysler’s turnaround plan needs a turnaround plan. Fast.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Mjz Mjz on Aug 04, 2010

    Moparman426W: According to what I read, the dealers don't like "Nassau" and Chrysler has decided that it will cost too much to launch a new nameplate into the marketplace. So Sebring it is! Actually, other than the current hideous iteration, past Sebrings were OK looking, remember Sebring convertible was the best selling convertible in the good ol USA, before the Germans hit it with the ugly stick.

  • Moparman426W Moparman426W on Aug 04, 2010

    mjz, thanks for filling me in. didn't know that they decided to keep the nameplate. It used to actually sound kinda cool. But after the last sebring, and all of the negative things said about it in the press now when I read or hear the name it's kinda the same as hearing the word "edsel." I think it would be cool to bring back the "cordoba" nameplate. I do remember the sebring as being the best selling ragtop during the late 90's. I thought they were actually pretty good looking cars, despite the fact that they all seemed to be white.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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