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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Chrysler, LLC. , Dodge , Jeep , Earnings/Financials The automotive sales sector is in a major state of flux as consumers continue to run from SUVs and pickup trucks into smaller, more fuel efficient cars. One manufacturer hit especially hard by this transition is Chrysler, a company that recently posted the worst fleet average fuel economy numbers of all major automakers in the U.S. due to its truck-heavy lineup. Still, the automaker has built up a large supply of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep utility vehicles that they have got to get off dealer lots somehow. To ease consumers into the fuel-thirsy utes, Chrysler has introduced new incentives of zero-percent financing for 72 months on the 2008 Dodge Durango, Chrysler Aspen and Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander. While the lack of any financing charges will certainly impact the bottom line, it is nothing compared to the losses the automaker has been hit with over its past lease deals. In fact, truck and SUV residuals...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Chrysler, LLC. , Earnings/Financials Chrysler LLC's financial division will no longer be offering leases to U.S. consumers on Chrysler products as of August 1st. The automaker will be holding a conference call with dealers later today to go over the changes and the reasons behind the decisions, but Chrysler spokesperson, Bill Porter, told Reuters "We are shifting our strategy to focus on retail products." The move comes amidst Chrysler's attempt to get 20 banks to renew a $30 billion credit facility for the automaker's financial arm. The rise in borrowing costs next month will make it more difficult for Chrysler to offer low-interest loans and could spell further disasters on the sales front. Thanks to all who tipped in. [Source: Reuters , WSJ ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , Podcasts , Chrysler, LLC. , Dodge , Ford , GM , Mazda , Toyota , Earnings/Financials We busted our humps getting to Podcast #100, and then promptly slacked off. Chris Shunk and Dan Roth make the effort this week to get Autoblog Podcast #101 out the door while the rest of the team remains difficult to corral. The usual banter about what's been in the Autoblog Garage starts us off before we dive headlong into the pithy GM news from earlier this week. Love it? Hate it? Send your comments, suggestions, or anything else to podcast at autoblog daht kahm. Thanks for listening! SUBSCRIBE to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes ADD the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator DOWNLOAD the show now Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , HUMMER , Earnings/Financials Click above for a high-res gallery of the HUMMER H3T. To say that HUMMER's launch timing for the H3T sport-utility-truck couldn't be worse seems like an understatement. Trucks which had been flying out of showrooms just a few short years ago are now languishing on dealer lots. What's more, the entire HUMMER brand could get the axe any day now from ( current ) parent company General Motors. Still, the H3T is coming to a dealer near you in September , and there's nothing that the General can do but price it competitively and hope for the best. We've got some detailed pricing information pasted after the break, but the short version is that the five-cylinder base model, which comes standard with a five-speed stick, will go for $31,495 and be equipped with the expected four-wheel drive along with 32-inch tires and a clothe interior. Upscale Alpha models get upgraded with the 5.3L V8 hooked to...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Sedans/Saloons , Daimler , Mercedes-Benz , Earnings/Financials With sales of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class down 23 percent in the United States, and off nearly 12 percent worldwide, Daimler officials are showing concern. The luxurious S-Class is the most profitable model in the lineup, contributing up to an estimated 25 percent of Daimler's pre-tax profits, the drop is getting painful. With the exception of the new C-Class (up 38 percent), overall sales for the German automaker have fallen in the first six months of the year. In response, Daimler is diverting shipments of vehicles to China and Russia as those emerging markets have yet to see a slowdown. [Source: Automotive News , subs. req'd] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , BMW , Earnings/Financials , By the Numbers Demonstrating that there is good news still to be found in some sales departments, BMW Group announced their worldwide January through June 2008 sales for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands increased 4.7 percent compared to last year. The sales total of 764,874 automobiles marked the most successful half-year of sales in the history of BMW Group. All three brands contributed to the sales increase, in varying capacities. BMW sales grew 2.4 percent, thanks to the BMW 1 Series and 3 Series Cabrio , while MINI sales were boosted 17.9 percent as the MINI Clubman rolled into showrooms. Most impressive was Rolls-Royce, boasting a 68.4 percent increase in sales compared to last year. The only segment where BMW Group was unable to maintain sales levels was with its motorcycles, as sales fell 5.6 percent compared to last year. [Source: BMW Group] Continue reading BMW reports best-ever sales first half-year of 2008 Permalink | Email...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep , Earnings/Financials It looks like car shoppers have been smart enough to see past Chrysler's cheap gas guarantee . Despite Chrysler's extension of the offer for an extra month, a very small percentage of actual consumers have actually chosen the gas guarantee over the old fashioned cash back options. As we've reported in the past, the incentive wasn't really as good as it seemed once the math was done. As was pointed out by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a 3 mpg bump in efficiency would be equal to the savings Chrysler was offering. Additionally, Chrysler not only has the worst fleet in terms of fuel efficiency, but many of its products haven't exactly set the world on fire based solely on their own merit . The performance of the incentive deal suggests that in today's world average consumers may not want to be seen driving gas guzzling vehicles, regardless of what they're paying...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trends , Hybrids/Alternative , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , Earnings/Financials click above image for a high-res gallery of the Chevy Tahoe 2-mode Hybrid We've been waiting for General Motors to step up to the plate with its own incentives now that Ford has offered employee pricing on its F-Series trucks and Dodge has offered $2.99 fuel to go along with its various incentives for the Ram. It seems that GM has finally anted up and increased the incentives for the Silverado, Avalanche and Sierra trucks, along with the Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade and Suburban. The pickups all get $2,000 in customer cash to go along with an extra $3,000 if you already own a GM product for a total of $5,000 total off the sticker price. Those shopping for an SUV will even get an extra grand. In what may be an even larger sign of the times, for the first time ever GM's hybrid Tahoe and Yukon get $4,000 off, but only if you already own a product from the General...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Ford , Earnings/Financials Times are tough in Detroit these days as each of the Big 3 saw drastic drops in sales for the month of May. It's not surprising, then, to see that Chrysler , Dodge and Ford have increased incentives in an effort to get those cars off its dealer's lots. For instance, prospective buyers for the Hemi-powered Chrysler 300C can now choose either $4,000 cash back or $2,000 plus Chrysler's $2.99 gas promotion , known as Let's Refuel America. Choosing Chrysler's full-size SUV, the Aspen, will net you $4,500 cash back or $1,000 in cash, plus the Let's Refuel deal. Dodge too is heavy into the incentives game, especially on fuel-gulping SUV's and trucks. The largest savings come with the 2008 Ram truck, which gets you $5,000 in cash or $3,000 plus the cheap gas card. Realizing the sorry state that sales of the F-Series are in, Ford has chosen to offer employee pricing for its...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trends , Earnings/Financials Just less than a year ago, the Big 3 domestic automakers' combined market share dropped to less than 50-percent of the overall automobile market. That sobering statistic was made factual when the combined sales of vehicles from both Asian countries, such as Japan and Korea, were combined with sales from European companies, like Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. It seems that this sad state of affairs did little to stop the bleeding coming from Detroit, as last month marks the first time in history that Asian automakers alone, with a combined share of 47.8-percent, sold more vehicles in the United States than companies actually based there. Ouch. Large pickup trucks and SUV's have long been the last stronghold for Detroit's struggling automakers. While the Big 3 still have a commanding lead in sales of these large vehicles, it's the smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles which are taking the largest bite from the overall...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trucks/Pickups , Plants/Manufacturing , Chevrolet , Ford , Toyota , Earnings/Financials Could the reign of Ford's F-Series atop the sales charts in the U.S. come to an end? Some believe that it could indeed happen , and it's not even another pickup truck that is threatening the Blue Oval's bread-and-butter full-size pickup, it's the Toyota Camry. Let that sink in for a moment... alright, let's continue. The Camry already posted better sales numbers than the Chevy Silverado, the perennial second-best seller to the F-Series, for the month of April. In fact, the Silverado suffered a sales drop of 24.7 percent to 37,231 units while the Camry grabbed 40,016 sales in the same month. Still, even after the Camry's great sales month, the Silverado holds the edge when the entire year-to-date sales numbers are compiled, and the F Series still sits atop the list for now. Consider too that the Ford truck will get a major redesign for the upcoming model...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Hybrids/Alternative , Green , Toyota , Earnings/Financials Click above for a high-res gallery of the Toyota Prius Toyota announced today that worldwide cumulative sales of the Toyota Prius have passed the 1 million mark. While that milestone is impressive, more astounding is the fact that sales of the gasoline/electric hybrid continue to increase year-after-year -- even without a model change. The Toyota Prius has been sold in Japan since 1997. However, it wasn't introduced into the U.S. market until 2000 (as a 2001 model). The first compact models sold in the States didn't exactly fly out of the showroom (North American sales in 2001 were only 16,000 units), but the innovative vehicles educated customers to the benefits of hybrid technology, and paved the groundwork for the current-generation Prius with its updated Toyota Hybrid System II technology. That current model (pictured above) was first sold in 2005. As owners will boast, it is often recognized...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Economy , Plants/Manufacturing , Ford , Earnings/Financials Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe We'll admit it. We didn't think sales of the 2008 Ford Focus would take off like they have, even after we had a 2008 Focus SES Coupe in the Autoblog Garage and for the most part liked it. The redesign for 2008 just left a bad taste in our mouths, and we didn't think anyone would fall for those garish fender vents. For whatever reason, be it the car's smooth ride, competitive pricing or exclusive availability of the SYNC system, the 2008 Focus is selling like crazy. Ford says that it sold 49,070 Focuses this year through March alone, which is up 23 percent compared to last year. More importantly, all of those additional Focus sales were to retail customers, not fleets. Last year the Blue Oval built 191,000 Focuses, but today it has announced that production will be ramped up at its Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant so that...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Time Warp , Trends , Auction Action , Earnings/Financials Click above for a high resolution gallery Shelby's personal '69 GT500 Those who follow the classic car market are probably not surprised to hear that prices of vintage Detroit iron, especially those cars from the muscle-car era of the mid-'60s to early '70s, have shot up in the last several years, outperforming both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index, according to NADA Guides . Classic cars valued at over $125,000 performed the best, on average, by appreciating 47 percent between February 2004 and February 2008. By way of comparison, collectible cars in general increased in value at an average rate of 36 percent. Sounds like a good rate of return to us! For those interested in the collector car market but who don't have deep enough pockets to afford some of these high prices, NADA Guides' research shows that the market has begun slowing in the last year and...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Toyota , Earnings/Financials Toyota has so far resisted expanding its dealer body in the wake of the Japanese automaker's unprecedented climb up the sales charts. In eight years, Toyota has gone from having 15 million of its vehicles on the road to 22 million today. So far dealers have been able to keep up with the torrid sales pace, but at the service end, dealerships are busting at the seams. In an attempt to alleviate some of that pressure for landlocked dealers, Toyota has piloted off-site service centers and oil change centers. The early results show that the nine dealers in the pilot received significantly more customer pay (non-warranty) repairs than the average Toyota dealership, which translates into more money for the dealer. For Toyota owners near dealers with satellite shops, this means your car or truck will be fixed in a more timely fashion, and 15,000-mile checkups won't land you on a three-week waiting list. We totally understand why Toyota...
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