[willy4110]

RVC, before you laugh toooo hard, inspite of ever increasing Chrysler sales for over the past three years...and personally I hope this trend continues for the next 3-4 years but only time will tell...are Chrysler sales as high as they were 12/13 years ago under American ownership? Not even close. Are current Chrysler sales as high as they were 14/15 years ago? Not even close. But then, as someone else stated this is 2013, not 1997.

 

[Mike V.]

RVC, before you laugh toooo hard, inspite of ever increasing Chrysler sales for over the past three years...and personally I hope this trend continues for the next 3-4 years but only time will tell...are Chrysler sales as high as they were 12/13 years ago under American ownership? Not even close. Are current Chrysler sales as high as they were 14/15 years ago? Not even close. But then, as someone else stated this is 2013, not 1997.

Chrysler as a stand alone company had a best ever sales year profit wise in, IIRC, 1996... Right before the merger.

Since you mentioned it, 12-13 years ago was 2000-2001. Chrysler was merged with Daimler and not "American owned". But comparing sales today to 12-13 years ago is really difficult. 2012 was essentially the best year for the entire auto market since 2007. It is fairly clear that the new car market as a whole is no where near the level it was 12-13 years ago and that skews the comparison quite a bit. Industry sales for 2012 was 15.8 million cars

However, market share can tell quite a bit because it show how much of the market Chrysler has then and now. Chrysler held 11.2% of the market in 2012.

Chrysler Market Share
1980: 9.3%
1985: 12.0%
1990: 12.3%
1995: 14.7%
2000: 14.5%
2005: 13.6%
2010: 9.4%
2012: 11.2%

So where is Chrysler today? About where it always has been historically since 1980. With new product coming down the line I see Chrysler settling anywhere from 12-14%.

In other words, "not even close" is actually closer than you are making it out to be.

Mike

 

[Stratuscaster]

Just for reference:

----- CHRYSLER -----
1997: 2158378
----- DAIMLER -----
1998: 2359255
1999: 2483226
2000: 2376633
2001: 2196718
2002: 2226347
2003: 2129365
2004: 2206024
2005: 2278928
2006: 2047991
----- CERBERUS -----
2007: 2013154
2008: 1425428
----- FIAT -----
2009: 918739
2010: 1078054
2011: 1369009
2012: 1626484

 

[Dave Z]

Part of what happened with sales was:

1) Chrysler had adopted a strategy of "more profits, even if that means fewer sales" during the 1990s.
The cloud cars sold well below the level of the Spirit/Acclaim -- but they made a profit instead of losing money.
The Neon sold below the Sundance/Shadow -- but it made a profit instead of losing money.

2) Daimler supported sales with crazy incentives and huge advertising budgets, though their advertising usually worked better for VW than Chrysler.

3) Fiat had to deal with the post bankruptcy issues, loss of plants, general dislike of Chrysler resulting from the bad press, AND slashed incentives.

In my adult lifetime, I suspect Chrysler's best years were 1984 and 1997, not so much in profit or sales, but in trajectory and reputation.

 

[Mike V.]

Thanks Strat, I edited my post to go a different direction. Put our info together and it is quite telling. Truthfully, Chrysler is not far off from "it's best" years.

Mike