It's funny. There's this lingering impression, even among professional analysts and auto media who don't follow FCA closely, that Jeep still has a long long way to go before it gets back to the levels of success it enjoyed in the 1990s. But that impression is completely wrong when you look at the numbers.

 

Great article. I can remember back in 1979-1981, while we were suffering through bankruptcy with Chrysler, our AMC/Jeep lines were selling great, keeping us a float until Chrysler took off. I used to prep the CJ-5 and CJ-7s at night, installing the soft tops as they were optional back then. The CJ-5 with 4 cyl and man trans would go out the door around $19,000 for a stripped one. The Grand Wagoneer Cherokee with 360 V8 would sell also, but were bad gas hogs so the J-10 sold better. I think if Jeep would of had a frame on the J-10 it would of done better where we were located; a lot of farmers used their trucks for hauling heavy loads.

 

Great article. I can remember back in 1979-1981, while we were suffering through bankruptcy with Chrysler, our AMC/Jeep lines were selling great, keeping us a float until Chrysler took off. I used to prep the CJ-5 and CJ-7s at night, installing the soft tops as they were optional back then. The CJ-5 with 4 cyl and man trans would go out the door around $19,000 for a stripped one. The Grand Wagoneer Cherokee with 360 V8 would sell also, but were bad gas hogs so the J-10 sold better. I think if Jeep would of had a frame on the J-10 it would of done better where we were located; a lot of farmers used their trucks for hauling heavy loads.

???
J-10 always had a body on frame, as did all J-Series Jeeps.
Comanche, MJ was unit-body, based upon XJ.
J-20 and J-30 were great trucks, the J-30 was dropped because AMC didn't have the funds to advertise it against Ford, Chevy and Dodge and it never sold in large numbers.
Another good article by Larry.

 

It's funny. There's this lingering impression, even among professional analysts and auto media who don't follow FCA closely, that Jeep still has a long long way to go before it gets back to the levels of success it enjoyed in the 1990s. But that impression is completely wrong when you look at the numbers.

Volume is good, but not everything.

 

It's funny. There's this lingering impression, even among professional analysts and auto media who don't follow FCA closely, that Jeep still has a long long way to go before it gets back to the levels of success it enjoyed in the 1990s. But that impression is completely wrong when you look at the numbers.

Uh No.
Look at Dave's chart in the other thread. Jeep is just now getting close to, but not better than, precious numbers. Something they achieved with only 3 models. All three were antiquated by the way.
Put "Jeep" on a snow cone and you can sell them in Nome.
Build better Jeeps, more capable, expand the Wrangler plant and with real marketing and the sales would be 30% higher.
All,you can really say is, it was a good month and is trending up, not the best year, by many units.

 

Uh No.

Read: http://media.chrysler.com/newsrelease.do?id=15685&mid=1

"The Jeep brand continued to topple sales records in May as the brand posted its best ever sales month in the U.S."

 

"The new Cherokee is bringing a new buyer into our showroom that we haven't seen," Lee said. "They're a younger buyer than we would typically see on a Jeep; younger than the Liberty buyer."
In May, Lee had his best new-vehicle month at his Chrysler stores since 2005, thanks to strong Jeep sales.
"We're seeing previous import owners, more Hondas and Toyotas, coming in trade. The new style of the Cherokee is so dramatically different than previous Jeeps have been that it's more appealing to the younger buyer as well," Lee said.

This not building a Jeep plant is the same as a counterfitter refusing to buy paper. ullhair:

 

Read: http://media.chrysler.com/newsrelease.do?id=15685&mid=1

"The Jeep brand continued to topple sales records in May as the brand posted its best ever sales month in the U.S."

Selective editing, doesn't prove your already mis proven point.
The part of my quote you deleted is; all you can say is it was a good month.
The fact remains, yearly sales of 6 models, are still behind 1990 era sales of 3 models.
You jumped the gun. Yes one month is good and yes this year will be better than any year since 2006.
No yearly sales aren't at historic highs.
Maybe next year...

 

Anyone who read lvelleq's article in this week's AutoNews would have seen what one "solution" is for the lack of capacity.

Building Jeeps outside North America for market consumption outside North America.

Right now, they are limiting the number of export Jeeps built to provide more product for North America. But they can't just shut off the tap on export Jeep production altogether...until plants in other countries (ie; China & Brazil) are ready to go.

It's not the be-all/end-all solution - but it's one way to deal with it.

Take time and money to build a production facility. Or to remake an existing one. And then try to balance that with not stopping existing production.

 

Building Jeeps outside North America for market consumption outside North America.

Excepting Renegade.
Yes it's intended mainly for outside NAFTA, but I think they mis-calculated NAFTA popularity of Renegade. I think it could be huge, providing they can ship enough.

 

Selective editing, doesn't prove your already mis proven point.
The part of my quote you deleted is; all you can say is it was a good month.
The fact remains, yearly sales of 6 models, are still behind 1990 era sales of 3 models.
You jumped the gun. Yes one month is good and yes this year will be better than any year since 2006.
No yearly sales aren't at historic highs.
Maybe next year...

Norm, do you happen to know roughly what Jeep sales were in 1990 with Wrangler, XJ, and GC? Just curious.


Also, just an FYI, but last year, 2013 (490k US sales), was the best US Jeep sales year since 2000 (495k US sales). So far, 2014 (275k YTD US sales) is up like 50% on last year, so it will likely be the best US Jeep sales in a long, long, time, maybe ever, depending on exactly what the sales numbers were from the 90's

 

I show 229,327 produced for 1990.

 

I said 1990's not 1990.
Allpar posted a chart this morning, it shows sales in 1998,1999 as the highest. Over 500,000, US sales only.

 

Thanks Norm for en-lightning me about the J-10. Yes, the Comanche was what I meant. The J-10 was great but for us as a multi line dealer then, had competition for our Dodge truck line so I guess the dealer didn't order as many J-10's so he could sell the Dodge D150, 250, 350 series. I guess I'm just getting old and can't remember all them things.

 

Thanks Norm for en-lightning me about the J-10. Yes, the Comanche was what I meant. The J-10 was great but for us as a multi line dealer then, had competition for our Dodge truck line so I guess the dealer didn't order as many J-10's so he could sell the Dodge D150, 250, 350 series. I guess I'm just getting old and can't remember all them things.

You're welcome.
Once Chrysler bought Jeep, the Jeep truck line was doomed.
Dodge trucks in those days had lackluster sales and the Dodge Truck Division feared losing more sales to Jeep.
I never bought the argument, as it was unfounded fears. Jeep was not a threat to Dodge Truck, two different buyers.
A little crossover with Power Wagon buyers, but since Jeep was smaller, it was usually Jeep truck owners trading up for Power Wagons, not the other way around.

 

Norm, do you happen to know roughly what Jeep sales were in 1990 with Wrangler, XJ, and GC? Just curious.


Also, just an FYI, but last year, 2013 (490k US sales), was the best US Jeep sales year since 2000 (495k US sales). So far, 2014 (275k YTD US sales) is up like 50% on last year, so it will likely be the best US Jeep sales in a long, long, time, maybe ever, depending on exactly what the sales numbers were from the 90's

GC (ZJ ) debuted in 1992 as a '93 model. GC sales peaked at 300,000 in 1999. Not sure about the sales of the other models.

 

I said 1990's not 1990.
Allpar posted a chart this morning, it shows sales in 1998,1999 as the highest. Over 500,000, US sales only.

Yeah, I should have realized that was the case, since GC wasn't even around in 1990.

Regardless, they almost did 500k in 2013, so they should likely blow by 1998,1999. 1999 appears to be about 550k US sales.

 

They could possibly get there this year, but April and August are normally the top two months, with other months a tad less. So May could tell the tale.

 

My numbers show 312996 Jeep US Sales for 1998, 389205 for 1999.

Annual sales from 2002-2005 were all over 425000 each year - with a high of 459796 in 2002.

 

My numbers show 312996 Jeep US Sales for 1998, 389205 for 1999.Annual sales from 2002-2005 were all over 425000 each year - with a high of 459796 in 2002.

So what is with the chart? It doesn't jive with those numbers?
Worldwide vs. US Sales?
Production vs. sales?

 

So what is with the chart? It doesn't jive with those numbers?
Worldwide vs. US Sales?
Production vs. sales?

Strats #s seem lower than what's available for US sales on goodcarbadcar.

 

So what is with the chart? It doesn't jive with those numbers?
Worldwide vs. US Sales?
Production vs. sales?

You would have to ask Dave - I didn't create that chart.

 

You would have to ask Dave - I didn't create that chart.

Understand, as explained in the other thread.

It just starts the discussion from a bad place when the chart shows over 500,000 units in 1999 and your numbers don't.
It makes both sides of the discussion wrong, or right, depending upon which set of numbers are correct.

Hopefully the real numbers will present themselves.

 

Strats #s seem lower than what's available for US sales on goodcarbadcar.

My numbers came from Automotive News, as GCBC didn't exist when I started compiling data.

But thanks to everyone that brought up the differences, as it helped me to be able to determine the disparity - the calculations in my spreadsheet were incorrect as they were not taking into account all the models. As models were added, the totals - which I compute from the model totals - were not including them. Sloppiness on my part.

JEEP BRAND
1997: 472872
1998: 459294
1999: 554466 (#1)
2000: 496434 (#2)
2001: 455417
2002: 459796
2003: 440559
2004: 427239
2005: 467653
2006: 453873
2007: 475237 (#4)
2008: 333901
2009: 231703
2010: 291138
2011: 419348
2012: 474131 (#5)
2013: 490454 (#3)

 

Thanks!
The chart was correct.
Daimler purchased Chrysler in late 1998. You can see the drop as they took over, dropped XJ and started searching the globe for cheap plastic...
...and IFS...