Things change fast in the U.S. Auto Industry as it looks like it’s now Chrysler, Hyundai-Kia , Toyota and VW’s time to shine in 2012. GM and Ford are down in share for the year but they both have some strong product coming out that could put them back in the black when it comes to market share.
From the Detroit News:
General Motors Co.’s sales in the U.S. were down 8.2 percent for April as Ford Motor Co. reported last month’s U.S. sales were down, too, by 5 percent. Meanwhile, Chrysler Group LLC said Tuesday its sales were up 20 percent last month, making for its best April in four years.
GM sales were down to 213,387 primarily due to a 25 percent drop in fleet sales that the automaker said was because of the timing of rental customer deliveries. The company said its retail sales were essentially flat. GM also pointed out that April 2012 had three fewer selling days than the same month a year ago — only the second time that has occurred in the past 10 years.
GMC posted a sales increase of 4.5 percent during the month, driven by a 20 percent increase in sales of the GMC Sierra pickup and a 9 percent jump for the GMC Terrain crossover. Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac all saw total sales fall during April compared to the same month a year earlier.
Make no mistake about it my friends as Chrysler are back in the black in a big way! Give Sergio and his team credit for bringing Chrysler back from the brink with still plenty of new product on the way to continue to drive this turnaround story.
DETROIT — Chrysler Group said its first-quarter net income quadrupled on surging sales as the automaker set a profit target of $1.5 billion for the year.
Chrysler earned $473 million in the January-March period, up from $116 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 25 percent to $16.4 billion as U.S. vehicle sales increased 39 percent, the company said in a statement today.
“It’s fair to say that Chrysler is firing on all cylinders,” Chrysler-Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said. “It’s been a great quarter, and I think that the indications for the remainder of the year are absolutely positive.”
The 2012 target of $1.5 billion in net income would far outpace the $183 million earned last year as Chrysler posted its first annual profit since its 2009 bankruptcy.
It appears Chrysler is toying with the idea of building a brand new Barracuda and folks are more than excited to learn more. The Challenger is a beast so where does the supposed Barracuda fall in line with the automaker?
The Dodge Challenger made a comeback, so what’s next for Chrysler Group in the retro muscle-car wars?
How about a new Barracuda, sans the Plymouth name?
Chrysler Group is rumored to be developing a 21st century Barracuda to replace the Challenger, according to a story on the Motor Trend Web site.
The car would be smaller and lighter than the Challenger, and it would be built on a rear-wheel-drive platform co-developed by Chrysler and Fiat. Alfa Romeo would share the platform with a wide range of models, according to the story. Today’s Challenger shares a platform with the first generation Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger.
The Barracuda’s styling would be a far less literal interpretation of its namesake than the Challenger, adopting styling cues instead of the strong retro look found on today’s Challenger, the story says.
“That’s all speculation. We’re looking at a lot of things,” said Dan Reid, a Chrysler spokesman.
When we added the Viper to our “20 Cars for 2012 List” piece, not much was known about the car. Not much needed to be known. It’s a Viper; that alone is worthy of anticipation. However, to satiate our need for a bit more information, Chrysler has given us a teaser image of the new snake’s face.
As you can tell, not much can be gleaned from this picture either. But, we do know that behind those glaring headlights will, probably, lie a larger V-10 engine. We also know that this Viper will be under the “SRT” brand, not Dodge. Finally, the Viper will have traction control for the first time ever, as mandated by federal law. Traction control aside, the Viper will probably keep its fangs and be just as raw a driving experience as ever. Expect more information and tortured snake puns as the Viper comes closer to being revealed.
It was a matter of time before Chrysler re-entered the commercial van market in North America and now we know what’s coming. Starting in 2013 Chrysler’s Ram division will produce a version of Fiat’s Ducato Van to square off with Ford and GM’s commercial vans. This could be a real player in that segment but time will tell.
From Auto News.com:
Chrysler Group plans to add a large expansion to its current facilities in Saltillo, Mexico, to assemble a Ram-branded version of the Fiat Ducato commercial van for North America.
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler Group, said this week at the Detroit auto show that the expansion of the Saltillo plant would make it “the center for production of light-commercial vehicles in North America for us.”
A Chrysler spokesman would not confirm the size of the investment, but company sources said it was expected to be about $500 million. Chrysler already operates a truck assembly plant, a stamping plant and two engine plants in Saltillo, about 180 miles southwest of Laredo, Texas.
Marchionne said the front-wheel-drive full-sized commercial van shares a platform with the Peugeot Boxer in Europe.
As Chrysler starts to really get back in the mix with strong sales they now are jumping back in time with an all new 2013 Dodge Dart. This is a great idea and will spark the interest of those who remember or read about past Dart’s. The new model will be based off of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta which is sold in Europe. There are only a few pics available now but if the Dodge dart resembles the Alfa Romeo Giulietta this could be a home run for Chrysler!
From CNN.com:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Chrysler Group is tapping its history, resurrecting the Dodge Dart name for a new small car being unveiled at next month’s Detroit Auto Show.
The Dodge Dart name was last used on a small car sold in the mid-1970s.
The car will be based on engineering shared with Italy’s Fiat, Chrysler’s parent company.
For now, Chrysler has released only two images of the car. One shows a close-up of the front corner. The other shows the rear of the car with taillights similar to those on the 2011 Dodge Charger.
The car will be built in Chrysler’s Belvidere, Ill., factory. Fuel economy and pricing information for the car are not yet available. It will go on sale in the first half of next year.
Car sales picked up the pace in November but will it last? The annual rate of 13.8 million sales we might have turned the corner to better days ahead. Chrysler was up a staggering 45 percent and that isn’t a misprint.
November shaped up to be a strong month for U.S. auto sales with all major automakers except Honda Motor Co. reporting better results than a year ago.
Honda’s sales of 83,925 were down 6 percent from a year ago, largely on inventory woes due to flooding in Thailand.
Chrysler Group LLC reported a whopping 45 percent sales increase in November in the first results of what is expected to be one of strongest months of the year for U.S. vehicle sales.
Conversely, General Motors Co. only saw sales grow 7 percent compared with a year ago.
Ford Motor Co. sits in the middle with total sales of 166,865, up 13 percent from 2010 results.
Toyota Motor Corp. said its sales were up 6.7 percent in November on volume of 137,960 units.
Chrysler, the biggest gainer for the month, sold 107,172 vehicles in November, the automaker’s sixth consecutive month of best year-over-year sales this year.
“With sales up 45 percent, November was another huge month for the Chrysler Group and our highest year-over-year sales gain of 2011,” said Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales.
Strong sellers for the Auburn Hills automaker included the Chrysler 300 and 200 sedans, which contributed to the Chrysler brand’s 92 percent hike over last year and best November since 2008. Also boosting sales were the Dodge Charger, Avenger and Durango. The Fiat 500 notched 1,618 sales for the month.
Although the economy continues to lurch toward recovery at a snail’s pace, some automakers are defying expectations, and posting big gains on the sale charts. For the month of October, the big winners were Chrysler and Volkswagen. Chrysler sold 21,244 cars last month, a 28% increase when compared to October of 2010. High demand for the recently revised 200 and 300 sedans and high incentives helped bring traffic to the showrooms.
Volkswagen was another winner. They sold 28,028 cars last month, a 40% increase from October of last year. Volkswagen points to strong sales of their recently redesigned Passat sedan as the reason for drawing more sales. The good news is not expected to stop as November starts either.
Many automakers and analysts expected strong October sales, and are claiming high sales to continue through November. Although the economy is still a blight on auto sales, analysts expect outside variables to drive sales forward. First, they claim there is a lot of pent up demand for new vehicles since the age of the average car in this country is 11 years old. Secondly, inventory levels are returning to pre-quake levels for the Japanese manufacturers. Finally, a combination of high used car prices and incentives on new car purchases may sway consumers to purchase new cars instead of used ones. The fourth quarter of this year for automakers is shaping up to be much better than expected.
Today Chrysler and Eminem have done it again! They have partnered to release a special gospel version of “Lose Yourself” performed by the ‘Selected of God’ choir from the Chrysler Super Bowl commercial. The download is available on iTunes, where 100-percent of publishing proceeds will benefit local Detroit charities as part of the ‘Imported from Detroit Project’ launched by Chrysler and Eight Mile Style. Check out the video below and for more information on the charities benefiting from this initiative, visit IFDProject.com. (Also, check out the Twitter buzz at #importedfromdetroit and #IFDProject.)
The three Detroit-based automakers all reported double-digit U.S. sales increases in June, led by Chrysler Group LLC’s 30 percent increase from a year ago with 120,394 vehicles sold and the best June for the automaker since 2007.
That is followed by a 13.6 percent increase reported by Ford Motor Co. with 194,114 vehicles sold.
The third domestic automaker, General Motors Co., reported a 10.2 percent increase on sales of 215, 358 vehicles compared with June 2010.
Among the top Japanese automakers, who continue to struggle with earthquake-related shortages, Honda Motor Co. Ltd. reported a 27.1 percent decline for the month with total sales of 83,892. The Honda brand suffered a 27.4 percent drop in sales for the month while the luxury Acura brand was off pace by 24.5 percent.
Toyota Motor Corp. saw a 21.1 percent falloff for the month with 110,937 vehicles sold. The Toyota brand dropped 18.7 percent; Lexus division sales fell 37.8 percent compared with a year ago, when Japanese production was at full throttle.
“June marked a significant turning point for Toyota as sales moved up over last month (May),” said Don Esmond, head of U.S. operations. Supply and selection are improving daily, he said.
