Annual Thanksgiving holiday weekend sales events, coupled with the recent robust rebound in the U.S. auto marketplace, should have added up to a windfall for the nation’s auto dealers last month.
The world’s eight top auto manufacturers are releasing their November U.S. new car and light truck sales figures on Tuesday. Auto-industry analysts forecast total monthly sales to come in at about 1.19 million vehicles, up between 4 and 5 percent from the 1.14 million deliveries in November 2012. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate, the key monthly metric that gauges the health of the industry and consumer sentiment, is expected to be around 15.9 million units, up from 15.5 million in the same month last year.
Chrysler Group PPC, the Detroit 3 subsidiary of Italy’s Fiat SpA (BIT:F) is the first to report sales today. The maker of Jeep and Dodge brands said it had its best November since 2007 with deliveries up 16 percent from the same month last year, to 142,275 units.
“Our all-new Jeep Cherokee is off to a terrific start with more than 10,169 units sold in its first full month on sale,” said Reid Bigland, Chrysler’s head of U.S. sales, said in announcing the figures.
The Auburn Hills, Mich., company delivered 29,635 Ram pickups last month, a 22 percent increase over last year. The Ram is Chrysler’s bestselling model. Grand Cherokee mid-sized SUV sales rose 9 percent to 10,169 while buyers snatched up 11 percent more Dodge Charger muscle cars, or 6,985 units.
Losers for the month: the Fiat brand, which saw a 15 percent decline in sales of the Fiat 500 and Fiat 500L minis as consumer have been drifting away from compacts and subcompacts in recent months. The Chrysler 200 subcompact executive and the Chrysler 300 full-sized sedan were both down 24 percent (to 5,621 units) and 14 percent (to 4,115 deliveries) respectively.
Here Are The November 2013 'Big Eight' US Auto Sales Numbers: GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Kia/Hyundai
