Frozen by the unrelenting headwinds of vehicles past, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles monthly sales slid downward again in April, falling 7% against last year despite gains from Grand Cherokee and Dodge Ram, the company announced Tuesday.
FCA’s Jeep division, which has long been a buoy to the automaker, was the main force behind the decline as the brand dipped 17% during the month thanks to plummeting numbers from its discontinued Compass and Patriot vehicles.
“After a weaker-than-expected March, it’s becoming more likely that 2017 will be the first down year for the industry since 2009,” Tim Fleming, analyst for Kelley Blue Book, said in a news release.
Ford and GM also posted declines for the month, slowing 7.2 percent and 5.8 percent respectively as car sales dipped dramatically throughout the industry, while SUV and truck sales were flat or improved slightly. FCAs Ram division saw its numbers jump 5 percent in April, led by an 8 percent boost in Ram truck - its best selling vehicle.
"Considering that we have had seven years of growth, industry sales had to come down at some point," said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of industry analysis for car-shopping site Edmunds.com, in a statement.
For Jeep, its profitable Grand Cherokee continued to lead the way after posting a 6 percent increase for April. The vehicle is now up 15% for the year and sits second in overall vehicles sold throughout the FCA stable. Wrangler ended the month flat (selling one more unit over April 2016) and slipped slightly into negative territory for the year – down 1 percent. However, the Wrangler has posted better sales numbers recently and summer is traditionally the vehicle's top selling season. Unfortunately, Cherokee again disappointed with an anemic 17 percent drop for April and now sits 16 percent off in 2017. Rounding out current brands is Renegade, which has been a hot seller for FCA in 2017, but tripped up in April by falling 9 percent. The small Renegade still has posted large numbers for FCA in 2017 and remains up 8 percent for the year.
The clear culprits for FCAs April falloff, though, are its phased out Compass (down 61 percent) and Patriot (off 53 percent). Combined sales of those vehicles were off 11,074 units in April over last year which nearly equates to FCAs overall monthly sales deficit. While the company will still sell these lame duck vehicles until it exhausts inventory, FCAs redesigned Compass is now hitting dealerships and analysts believe this new model should help turnaround the automaker’s May numbers.
Currently, year over year sales are off 8 percent for FCA as the company stands at 691,527 vehicles sold. Jeep is currently down 13 percent with 257,622 vehicles sold through April.
