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Chrysler's American sales were down 4 percent in February 2003 compared with February 2002, due largely, according to Chrysler reps, to the adverse weather conditions (read: snow) which afflicted large parts of the United States. February also saw the debut of the "Best Values in America" campaign, which emphasizes value without actually saying anything good about the vehicles themselves (an interesting way to sell). There were minor increases in Liberty, Durango, and Dakota sales, rather strong increases in Concorde and 300M sales which more than compensated for a loss of Intrepids, and a six percent rise in Neon sales. Perhaps most important, Dodge Caravan sales were up 17 percent last month -- to 22,849 units -- compared with 19,541 vehicles in February 2002.
The down side included massive drops in Sebring sedans (33%) and coupes (36%), Chrysler Voyagers (down 47%!), Grand Cherokees (down 20% despite snow), PT Cruisers (down 21%), Stratus sedans (down 13%), and Ram vans (down 21%). Town & Country minivan sales also fell year-to-year, by 8%. Even though the snow was down and new models are out, the Ram pickups stayed even with last year.
Overall, cars fell 2%, trucks 5%, SUVs 7%, while minivans rose 2%. Chrysler has a 75 day supply of vehicles, or 532,223 units of inventory.
Meanwhile, GM fell 19% month-to-month, while Ford, once again, climbed - up 1.9% over last February.
All figures supplied by Bill Cawthon - however he is not responsible for commentary.
by Bill Cawthon
According to a press release issued by the Dallas, Texas, City Attorney's Office, Ford officials have admitted in sworn testimony that a Crown Victoria police car equipped with new fuel tank safety shield flunked the company's own crash test.
Dallas is suing Ford in an attempt to discover whether the police cruiser is safe. Fourteen U.S. law enforcement officers, including one from Dallas, have died in Crown Victoria fires after being rear-ended at high speeds.
The Ford Crown Victoria is the most widely used police vehicle in North America.
Last September, Ford announced it would install fuel tank shields on roughly 350,000 Crown Victorias, claiming a crash test showed the shields to be effective at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour.
In a deposition taken last month, however, a Ford official acknowledged the crash-tested tank actually leaked more than 40 ounces of a fuel substitute. Federal standards limit such leaks to no more than one ounce.
Dallas City Attorney Madeleine Johnson emphasized even small fuel tank punctures can touch off fires because fuel is expelled as an aerosol-like mist, quickly forming a vapor cloud that engulfs the vehicle.
Dallas patrol cars have been equipped with the new shields, but Ms. Johnson says she will continue to press Ford officials about why they persisted with the shield 'fix' in light of its failure in testing as well as why Ford has rejected other technologies she says offer greater protection.
Ms. Johnson noted Ford has announced that it will begin production of a $140,000 Lincoln Town Car with a fuel tank that self-seals if punctured. The new Lincoln "Ballistic Protection Series" is designed to resist high-powered rifles and offer limited bomb-blast protection. This same technology was presented to a Ford technical task force last summer but was rejected as not being production-ready.
Johnson also raised questions about Ford's promise of special trunk packs for police vehicles to guard against heavy objects that might be propelled through the trunk and into the fuel tank in a rear-end collision. Last month, a Texas Department of Public Safety vehicle operating in Bee County suffered a tank puncture when the corner of a videotape mounting bracket punctured the tank.
Johnson said Ford announced just today that it will produce only 12,500 of the safety packs per year, covering a fraction of the affected vehicles in use. Furthermore, there still is no delivery date for the packs, which were promised by the end of 2002. Ford says the trunk packs, which include a Kevlar sheet, will cost $210 each -- four times the company's original estimate. Ford has said it will not pay for the trunk packs.
Ford has claimed repeatedly that the technology does not exist to protect fuel tanks from punctures or leaks in high-speed, rear end crashes.
The Crown Victoria, which was manufactured 24 years ago, has the oldest unchanged design of any car on the market. The longer a car is marketed without a design change, the more profitable it is for the manufacturer.
The City of Dallas and others suing Ford over the Crown Victoria police cars are gathering sworn testimony from Ford officials as part of a consolidated discovery process before a federal judge in Cleveland. The city filed suit against Ford seeking Crown Victoria safety information last December in the wake of Dallas Police Officer Patrick Metzler's death.
Maybe it's time to switch to Intrepids?
The Bastrop Cruise, held with a number of Texas Mopar clubs, will be held on April 5, 2003. Contact the San Antonia Mopar Club, Austin Mopars, The Lone Star Shelby Dodge Club, or Mopars Of SouthEast Texas for details.
A British court has ordered the Financial Times to turn over a tape recording of their interview with Juergen Schrempp, in which the DCX CEO said he always intended for Chrysler to be a division (an acquisition) rather than a merger partner, to former Chrysler shareholders who are suing DCX. At issue is the payment given by DCX to Chrysler shareholders, which would have been much larger if the acquisition had not been set up as a merger. Indeed, it is unlikely that there would have been an acquisition if Chrysler shareholders had been aware that it was a purchase.
Detroit News reported that the Airflite concept coupe is actually built on the LX platform, and is most likely a preview of a real production Chrysler large-scale four-door coupe-styled sedan, with a front end very similar to the Pacifica and the minimum possible amount of glass. The concept will be shown next week in Geneva.
According to DCX's annual report, DaimlerChrysler's top 13 executives more than doubled their pay, with management board members getting a total of 51 million euros ($55 million) - from 22 million euros last year. 37 million euros of that figure were "short-term and midterm incentive pay." Meanwhile, suppliers report that they are still being squeezed, and Chrysler vehicles appear to be in the midst of a decontenting program.
On reflection and further examination, it appears that the Grand Cherokee to be introduced in Geneva will probably be a stopgap redesign, to keep the European version fresh while the Austrian plant awaits tooling for the total redesign. We believe this because it will use the 4.0 liter six as its base engine, and we doubt Chrysler would carry this engine forward any longer than it had to. The optional 4.7 and diesel will probably carry through, with, at least in the US, a Hemi option likely. We'd expect the 4.0 to be dropped completely or replaced with the new 3.7 V6 used in Rams.
Press kits for the Geneva auto show next month appeared on Chrysler's media site, then were quickly yanked. There was no embargo date - just February 25. The press kits noted a revised Grand Cherokee with round headlights and straight up-and-down grille, a la Liberty and Wrangler, but without photos. There was also a reference to the Airflite concept coupe, with international engineering and American style (in other words, we suspect, a reskinned Mitsubishi or Mercedes). At the moment, we do not have a reply from Chrysler, so we can voice our strong suspicion that the next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee will be introduced in about two weeks in Geneva - perhaps the first major new vehicle introduction in Europe by Chrysler.
In addition to our prior story on Jeep in Geneva, below, we add that Chrysler introduced its Airflite concept coupe.
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