The weather has been bone chilling all across the country so far in 2014, and many automakers are blaming weaker than expected auto sales on the chilly temperatures.
Four of the top five U.S. auto sellers on Monday blamed extreme winter weather for poorer-than-expected sales in January, as analysts and executives predicted a rebound in February and March.
U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co as well as Japan’s Toyota Motor Sales USA and American Honda Motor Co saw auto sales plummet in January, missing analysts’ estimates for the month.
Sales results were mixed for other companies and brands, with Chrysler Group, a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Nissan North America reporting increases and topping forecasts.
Total industry sales in January, as compiled by Reuters from the manufacturers, fell 3.1 percent to 1,011,188.
Tye folks at Chrysler took the opportunity to crow a bit that the weather only affected their competitors, but having spent some time in Ohio in January, I’m not suprised by these disappointing results. Let’s see what happens in February and March.
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President Obama’s campaign is running this ad in Michigan and Ohio in response to discredited Mitt Romney arguments about Chrysler and Jeep moving jobs to China.
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Times are good for Chrysler, which provides some good economic news for the administration on a day that the lame job numbers came out.
Chrysler sales jumped 30% in May, which extend an incredible steak of 12 consecutive months where the company has exceed 20& year-over-year sales growth. This is excellent news for the company and for anyone who defended the auto bailout.
And things might get even better for Chrysler soon:
And it comes as Chrysler prepares later this month to roll out its key new car introduction for the year, the Fiat-based Dodge Dart, above, that it aims to get the company back into the small-car game. Dart is an enlarged, Americanized version of Fiat’s sporty Alfa Romeo Giulietta.
All the company’s brands — Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Fiat — posted year-over-year gains in May. Fiat was up most, 128% to a record month as the tiny 500 finally gains some traction.
But the Chrysler brand was heroic — up 81%, as the 200 sedan zoomed 87% and the big 300 rocketed 140% for its best May since 2007.
If the Dart is a hit, then Sergio Marchionne and his team can really celebrate.
Check out the entire article for news on the other automakers.
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 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.
