Chrysler Sales Riding on Jeep

The company’s sales total was a little short of analysts’ estimates. Analysts at Kelley Blue Book had projected sales at 191,000, and Edmunds had projected about 192,000 sales in April.

The company’s Jeep brand sold 71,759 units in March. Jeep has now set a sales record for 19 consecutive months. The company’s all-new Jeep Renegade sold 4,214 units in its first full month of availability.

Ram pickup rose 3% in April to 37,921 units, after posting a 2% year-over-year sales decline in March. Last year, Ram sold 36,674 pickups in April. For the first four months of 2015 Ram sales are up 4%.

Slower growth in Ram pickup sales is not good news for Chrysler. The pickups are the company’s best-selling vehicle, accounting for 20% of total sales in April and total year-to-date sales.

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Pickup sales had their best April ever, but it was not enough to overcome continuing weakness in the company’s Dodge brand sales, which were down 16% year-over-year in April and are now down 15% for the year-to-date.

Year-over-year sales of the company’s Chrysler brand are up 16% as sales of the new Chrysler 200 rose 348% year-over-year to 18,850 units on top of a 155% year-over-year gain in March.

Chrysler projected a seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales in the United States from all manufacturers at 17 million units for 2015, down from last month’s projection of 17.1 million. The company ended the month with 78 days supply of inventory, up from 73 days of supply at the end of February.

Chrysler’s shares were inactive in Friday’s premarket session, having closed down 4% on Thursday at $14.71. The current post-IPO range is $8.54 to $17.08.