July Sales Recap: Chrysler Strong, Ford and GM Stumble

Chrysler had the strongest month of sales in July for the Big Three American automakers, posting a 13-percent increase over July 2011 while Ford and General Motors both lost ground to Japanese companies recovering from last year’s earthquake.

All brands under the Chrysler halo (FIAT, Ram, Jeep and Dodge) posted increases over the same month last year, but it was the Chrysler brand itself that made the most headway. American customers purchased 20,792 vehicles in July, a 35-percent improvement. Chrysler is more important than ever for Fiat SpA, the European auto giant who bought the company after its 2008 bankruptcy. Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne has increased his investment into Chrysler and limited that of Fiat, a move that is beginning to pay off as the former flourishes and the latter suffers under the weight of the European economic collapse.

Ford and General Motors both suffered losses compared to July 2011, Ford with a 4-percent decline and GM sales down by 6-percent. Both automakers blamed shrinking sales of their fleet vehicles, which they say was a planned decision, but even discounting the fleet decline Ford made only a 2-percent improvement and GM lost 6-percent.

Cadillac, though, performed very well for GM with strong sales of their CTS, Escalade, SRX and all-new XTS accounting for a 21-percent improvement over July 2011. GM expects those figures to continue their success with production of the new ATS beginning last week.

The biggest gains in July went to Japanese automakers, posting massive sales increases over last year when they struggled to fill dealerships after the 2011 earthquake shut down production.

Toyota sales increased by 26-percent, while Nissan enjoyed a 16-percent jump and Subaru had its eighth straight month of improvement with a 23-percent leap over July 2011 sales.

In the never-ending battle between German automakers, Audi continued to gain ground on BMW as perhaps the hottest brand of all in the U.S. market. Audi set a record for July sales with a 28-percent increase over last year, while BMW sales fell by 0.5-percent. The Bavarians still sell significantly more vehicles than Audi – pushing 21,297 in July compared to 11,707 for Audi – and sales of their 5-Series, 6-Series and 7-Series all grew, but overall they still relinquished market share to their white-hot competitors.

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