Chrysler sales plummet in November; Dodge still strong brand

Chrysler sales plunged 47.1 percent in November as tight credit and consumer concerns about the economy took a toll on the entire industry. Compounding the matter was buyer uncertainty about the future of Chrysler and the other American automakers. In its loan request to Congress, General Motors cited a study by CNW Marketing Research that showed more than 30 percent of consumers who considered a GM vehicle but selected a competitive product said the possibility the company might go bankrupt was the top reason for their choice. With numerous analysts and pundits writing off Chrysler as a stand-alone company, it’s no stretch to see a similar effect putting a damper on Chrysler sales.

Chrysler year-to-date sales in 2008 are now 27.7 percent behind the first eleven months of 2007. The Dodge Ram pickup was the only Chrysler model to break the 10,000-unit mark in November and the Ram, Chrysler Town & Country, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger and Dodge Caravan brought in more than 5,000 sales. Reductions in fleet sales meant huge drops in Chrysler passenger car volumes ranging from a 47.0 percent shortfall for the Charger to a 76.9 nosedive in sales of the Avenger. Year-to-date (YTD) sales of the Chrysler 300 are down 47.0 percent.

Jim Press, Chrysler Vice Chairman and President, said, “2008 will go down as unlike any other year in the industry, and thus, comparisons to 2007 sales have become irrelevant.”

Chrysler was again the worst performing of the three divisions, posting a 56.0 percent deficit compared to November 2007. Dodge sales were down 44.3 percent and Jeep numbers came up 41.8 percent behind last year’s total.

The Aspen and Viper were the only Chrysler models with improved sales, up 32.9 and 1160 percent, respectively. In terms of YTD numbers, the faithful Jeep Patriot is still 49 percent ahead of 2007.

The Challenger and Journey posted respectable numbers. The Challenger was just 303 units behind the Ford Mustang in the pony car segment and Dodge can be proud of the Journey, which is handily outselling the slow-moving Ford Flex and was just 121 sales behind the new Chevrolet Traverse.

The Jeep Wrangler outsold every GM crossover or SUV and beat every Ford SUV except the Escape. In fact, it outsold every GM light truck except for the Silverado and Sierra pickups.

As reported earlier, the Chrysler Town & Country was the top-selling minivan in November, followed by the Honda Odyssey, Dodge Caravan and Toyota Sienna. Barring a major surge in Caravan sales in December, the Odyssey looks like it will end the Dodge’s record as the top minivan model in the U.S. market, though Chrysler will still remain the top minivan producer.

Disappointing as Chrysler’s November sales were, they were sufficient to keep the company in fourth place, behind GM, Toyota and Ford. The continued decline in Honda and Acura sales has left American Honda behind the Auburn Hills gang in both monthly and YTD totals.

Overall industry sales figures were grim as the sales total once again came in under a million units. The 36.7 percent shortfall in November light vehicle sales was an even larger deficit than the 31.9 percent plunge recorded in October and resulted in a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR) of just 10.18 million vehicles, a level not seen since October 1982 and nearly six million sales short of the pace recorded last November.

General Motors, which is looking at running out of cash before the end of the year, posted sales totals that missed their year-ago numbers by 41.3 percent. Even the successful new Malibu, which has one of the best sales records of any passenger car sold in America, couldn’t break 10,000 sales. Only the Impala was able to beat that number as sales of the Cobalt tanked, down 53.6 percent. Dodge sold more cars than any GM division except Chevrolet and Chrysler-brand cars outsold those from Buick and Saturn.

Over in the truck department, the news was also bad. How bad? Dodge once again beat every GM division except Chevrolet as did Jeep. Every Jeep model except the Compass and Commander beat the total of Hummer sales for November and the Commander missed by just seven sales.

GM has given up on spin: Mark LaNeve, vice president of North America Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing confessed, “Every manufacturer is posting awful numbers and we are no exception.”

As a measure of just how bad things are at the top automaker, Fritz Henderson, GM’s COO, was asked what alternative plans the company had if Congress didn’t approve a bailout. His response was, “There isn’t a Plan B. Absent support, frankly, the company just can’t fund its operations.”

Ford’s F-Series pickup looks to have a lock on the top sales spot for yet another year. Ford, which has been the most financially confident of the Detroit automakers, finished November 30.5 percent behind its year-ago record. By posting one of the smaller deficits for November, the folks in Dearborn picked up another 1.5 percent of market share. Despite missing their November numbers, the Focus and Fusion are still ahead of 2007 in YTD sales. Thanks to strong sales of the new MKS, Lincoln came in with one of the smallest declines of any domestic auto brand, down just 8.3 percent.

Nissan took it on the chin in November as sales cratered, leaving the third-largest Japanese automaker in the red by 42.2 percent. Truck sales fell off a cliff, led by a 79.6 percent drop in sales of the Titan full-size pickup. Sales of the usually-popular Altima were down 45.3 percent in spite of generous incentives.

Toyota got another dose of bad news as sales dropped again. Toyota’s shortfall was a hefty 33.9 percent as every model in its lineup, except for the big Sequoia and Lexus LX SUVs, came up short. Plunging gas prices put the kibosh on sales of the Prius which were down 48.3 percent. Lexus recaptured the top spot in the luxury segment and looks to be keeping it for another year. Another Toyota repeat will be the Camry which will rack up one more year as the best-selling passenger car in the U.S.

American Honda reported a 31.6 percent shortfall in November sales, driven by weakness in every line except the Pilot SUV. As with the Prius, falling gas prices took a toll on sales of the tiny Fit which were off by 8.4 percent. Despite a 26.3 percent slump last month, the Honda CR-V remains the best-selling crossover or SUV.

The best-performing of all the auto brands was BMW’s Mini, where sales were up 43.1 percent, and Subaru with a 7.8 percent drop, the smallest decline for any mass-market brand. Subaru is one of the only automakers still in the black when counting YTD sales. Down at the bottom of the barrel is Isuzu which will be leaving the American light vehicle market at the end of the year. Isuzu sold a total of 130 light trucks last month.

All signs point to another slow month in December and it looks like 2008 sales will come out around 13 million to 13.5 million units. It may well be another year before sales really start to recover. In the meantime it’s a shame about the lack of consumer credit: the low gas prices and high incentives would make this the perfect time to get one of those big Rams or a Durango.