One wonders how that compares to the loss percentages that others manufacters or models are experiencing?

That is where real information would be learned.

Anybody happen to know what percentage car sales are down in general.

Thanks for that sales page though, it is very informative.

 

One wonders how that compares to the loss percentages that other manufacturers or models are experiencing?

That is where real information would be learned.

Anybody happen to know what percentage car sales are down in general.

Thanks for that sales page though, it is very informative.

Not sure about the industry as a whole, but Toyota for instance is DOWN 23% overall. Their trucks are DOWN 34% but their cars are only DOWN 15%.

While GM is struggling, they still outsold Toyota overall by just a few thousand vehicles. Hey GM, ya hearing some footsteps? Toyota is a comin' and comin' HARD!!!!! :wow:

 

The Patriot has been consistent.
Might be the only Chrysler vehicle that is.

 

Before I bought my '08 Patriot, I really looked around. It really does have the best mpg for it's class of small suv. It's also the roomiest. For awhile, it came down to 3 vehicles: Jeep Patriot, Scion xD, and the Kia Sportage.

Well, what really decided for me was that the local Jeep dealership dropped the price to $12k even plus tax. That was roughly $4k cheaper than the other two, even though the Patriot had less standard features.

 

I would suspect it's the Sport model that is keeping the Patriot afloat right now. A bare bones sport can be had at a steal right now for people looking at a new car.

 

I think these numbers are the nail in the coffin for the compass. I mean, 855 sold, is pretty sad. This in my opinion is the reason that chrysler is in the position it is right now. They rebadged so many platforms to make 2-3 identical vehicles. I mean I know its America and we all love to be differant, but it was a complete waste.

 

And to think that if they had stuck to the market research results, the Compass would have been the only one produced. It was favored something like 53% to 47%.

NickelPlate: Who cares about total numbers. The question is whether they are losing money or making money. Selling 200 Vipers would probably be outstanding, while selling 200 econo-cars would be awful. It depends on the type of market the vehicle is in. As far as small SUVs? Who really knows.

 

So what exactly is considered to be a good sales number for a vehicle? I don't really have a feel for it.

NP

 

It's relative... looking at the market, 3,000+ units for a small SUV that has next to no advertising is pretty good.

 

Here's what I see in these numbers... In 2007, there were 40k total Patriots sold in a 12 month period. It only took 7 months in 2008 to equal that. Like Gaze said, that was without advertising...

What we really need is to know how many units of each model were produced to be sold. If Jeep only produced 1000 Compass units in September, and sold 855 in October, giving a month to deliver and prep, then that's a pretty good ratio.... Bottom line is Jeep, and Chrysler, have been building vehicles a long time, and they know when to throttle back the production line and when to speed it up. It costs too much to have too many vehicles just sitting on dealer lots.

 

Perspective is everything. Over a 6 year period 1980 to 1986, only 35,000 Jeep CJ8/Scramblers were sold. Patriot has done far better than that in each of the years it has been produced.

The problem here is car companies need to be able to produce as many cars as consumers want. Not more. Not fewer. Our auto industry simply is out of touch with reality. If they have a good year they automatically think the next year will be even better. DUH! If everyone bought a car last year, they probably won't buy another one this year. Thus, it these are loyal return customers, no new cars will be sold to them for at least 3 years.

 

The thing I hate about auto sales and car companies is they work off of prediction.

While what wade says is true, Chrysler predicts their sales based on trends and previous sales. They may have sold 40k last year, but they may have predicted selling 60k in '08. Since these numbers most likely wont reach the sales numbers they predicted, they announce to the public they lost $x.x million dollars. Thats total bull s***. No company (oil/auto/retail) can run a business losing that much money. The reason they still run is because they dont actually lose that money.

Sorry for the rant! It might have gone off topic a little, but thats why looking at these numbers the way we do is important. It shows us that, "hey! they arent doing bad! they actually sold more this year!"

 

Toyota was down 23%, Honda 29% (I believe), Nissan 33&, Ford 29%, Chrysler 35% and GM, oh GM, is down nearly 45%...............

 

Thanks Stew and Panda. Well I certainly don't need to spell it out, but I will the Patriot is very much on the reasonable end of this, not Chrysler so much, but the Patriot is, and as many pointed out, this is with almost non-existent advertising. I think anyone of us could think of dozen, safety, eco-friendly, off and on road capability commericals that would push sales of this gem even in crappy times at least enough to make up the advertising loss. Heck, this whole political season Jeep could have be pushing a split screen add with eco-friendly hippie types meditating in the nature extolling the virtues of their fuel sipping 4x4, and Right wing hunters getting out to their favorite blind. So many advertising possibilities. This vehicle is so versitale one thinks it could easily be marketed to young people, old people, families, farmers etc, instead of to nobody.

I am one that agrees the compass should be cut and wonders what they were thinking in the first place on that model, it seems like with less than a thousands units a month sold that without the compass as an option, the Caliber and Patriot might be able to make up that difference. However, since all three are made on the same platform, does it really save Jeep much of anything to drop the compass?

 

The industry is hurting, and the market is hurting. Its bad news all around, no one is prospering in the vehicle industry right now.

 

Canada seems to be resisting the trend. Overall car sales were up about 1.5% compared to Oct. '07. GM and Ford sales were down, but everyone else was up, including a 2% increase at Chrysler Canada. This article has some of the numbers. No model by model breakdown, but interesting:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081103.wautosales1103/BNStory/Front