Ram Carries FCA Load

Ram pickup daily sales charged ahead 11.9% in April, helping FCA US mitigate a significant decline in Jeep deliveries and the continued loss of car sales amid the automaker’s ongoing effort to refocus its portfolio on strong-selling SUV and truck segments.

FCA US sales dipped 3.3% on a daily sales basis in April and 6.8% year-over-year in total volume to 174,829 deliveries, according to WardsAuto data. April had 26 selling days compared with 27 last year.

Car sales were down 20.5%, while light truck deliveries eked out a 0.2% increase. For the year, car volume has declined 26% with light trucks seeing a 4.5% drop.

The formerly strong Jeep brand was off 13.3% with 68,879 deliveries as the sell-down of outgoing Compass and Patriot models comes to an end and dealers await full inventory of the all-new ’17 Compass replacement. Compass deliveries cratered 60% while Patriot sales saw a 50.7% drop.

The Wrangler, due for replacement at year-end, posted a 3.9% uptick, while the Grand Cherokee gained 10.3%. Despite a strong market for small CUVs, the Cherokee was down 13.8% and Renegade declined 5.1%.

The Ram truck brand was up 9.5% on 45,980 deliveries, fueled by Ram light-duty pickups (+11.9%), offsetting declines by the ProMaster City (-26.1%) and ProMaster van (-0.5%). Dodge gained 1.2% on 39,445 deliveries, including strong performances by the Durango SUV (+22%) and Journey CUV (+78.7%).

Chrysler chipped in a 0.5% increase with 17,309 sales. The Pacifica minivan posted a 12% increase in April compared with the previous month on sales of 10,427 units, outselling the previous-generation Dodge Caravan by just 610.

Boutique brand Alfa Romeo showed progress with 677 sales in April, up from 553 in March.

The Fiat brand declined 14.9% with sales off for all models except the Mazda MX-5-based 124 Spider sports car, which accounted for 465 deliveries. The automaker reported a 19% hike in Maserati sales in April compared with year-ago.

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