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FCA US breaks even in July, overcoming double-digit volume drops at Dodge and Fiat and weak car demand at Chrysler with solid gains posted by Jeep and Ram and a spike in fleet volume.
Total U.S. sales reached 179,333 light vehicles, just a few units short of year-ago’s 179,362 (26 sales days both periods).
The automaker says its retail sales of 155,885 units were down 2% for the month from year-ago, while its fleet volume of 24,842 marked a 22% rise. This is the first time this year FCA has detailed its fleet total in its monthly sales report.
Jeep led the bright spots, with deliveries up 5.0%, driven mainly by Renegade (56.9%) and Compass (30.7%). Wrangler sales slid 5.5% and Cherokee demand dipped 11.5%.
Ram posted a similar result, with sales up 3.4% on strong performances by its ProMaster Van (41.0%) and City (86.6%) models.
The Dodge brand continues to lag, with sales off 10.1%. The Caravan minivan (up 28.2%) and Challenger coupe (7.2%) were the only bright spots.
Chrysler got a bump from the new Pacifica minivan, which recorded 7,911 deliveries, but huge drops by each of its other models took the brand down 4.1% for the month.
Fiat was helped by the new Mazda-based Spider roadster, which sold 480 copies, and a 0.8% gain for the 500X, but huge drops by the base 500 and 500L resulted in a 13.8% decline by the brand overall.
The FCA data reflects revisions to year-ago numbers as a result of the automaker’s changes to its methodology announced last month amid a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the automaker’s sales-reporting practices.
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