Without Alfa, FCA Had Awful January

With the exception of Alfa Romeo, which has recently expanded its portfolio to include the Giulia sedan and Stelvio CUV, every FCA US brand sold fewer vehicles in January than it did a year ago.

The Fiat brand fell the most – 45.5% to 1,229 vehicles, based on the daily sales rate, according to WardsAuto data. There were 25 selling days in January 2018 compared with 24 in the prior January.

The rest of the portfolio wasn’t much better. Dodge was down 33.9% from year-ago to 27,600 light vehicles last month, while Chrysler struggled as well (down 24.0% to 10,584 vehicles).

Overall, FCA US sold 131,834 vehicles in January, dropping 16.3% from year-ago.

Despite a market hungry for light trucks, Ram deliveries fell 19.3% to 31,070 units. ProMaster commercial vehicles were down 49.3% to 1,771 units.

Ram desperately needs to fill the pipeline with its new ’19 fullsize 1500 pickup, which goes into production within the next two months in Sterling Heights, MI, and was displayed at the recent North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Ram pickup sales have been down four of the past five months.

In January, daily deliveries of the outgoing Ram pickup were down 16.6% to 28,389 units compared with like-2017. For context, daily sales for Ford F-Series pickups were down 2.0% to 54,972 units, while Chevrolet Silverado deliveries climbed 9.9% to 40,716 units, WardsAuto data shows.

Even Jeep, arguably FCA’s most coveted brand, was down 1.9% in January from like-2017 to 59,703 vehicles, partly due to discontinuation of the Patriot. The best-selling Grand Cherokee found 16,364 buyers in January, down 9.2% from year-ago.

Also falling was the Renegade (-31.9%), while the soon-to-be-replaced Wrangler was flat, at 11,739 units. Jeep dealers began receiving the new Wrangler in January from the Toledo, OH, assembly plant.   

Doing well for Jeep were the Cherokee (+11.8% to 14,621 units) and the all-new Compass, which more than doubled its daily volume to 10,192 from year-ago.

At Chrysler, the only bright spot was the Pacifica minivan, with daily sales up 15.3% to 8,011 units. At Dodge, the only gainer was the Durango SUV, up 4.9% to 5,145 vehicles.

Alfa Romeo has seen interest trail off in the limited-purpose two-seat 4C coupe (12 units sold in January), but the new Giulia continues to win over consumers, with daily sales reaching 948 units last month. Even newer is the Stelvio sporty CUV, which notched 688 deliveries in January.

The Fiat brand continues its free-fall, with the best-selling 500X CUV finding only 488 buyers last month, down 21.9% from year-ago. The biggest loser was the diminutive 500, down 64.2% to 454 units.

FCA says its retail sales rose 2.0% to 111,577, making it the second-highest level since 2001. The automaker also says it reduced fleet sales 50% compared with January 2017. Fleet accounted for 16% of total January sales.

Through December FCA had posted 16 straight year-over-year declines based on daily sales. The automaker is into its second year without the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200, so year-over-year comparisons may start showing improvement.

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