Cars and Drivers

Fiat Chrysler's 5 Best-Selling Cars

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 14, 2017 9:25 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:52 pm

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Inc. (NYSE: FCAU) is scrambling to defend itself against accusations that it violated the Clean Air Act. The incident involved 104,000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 EcoDiesel pickups. Each of these is a version of two of Fiat Chrysler’s best-selling cars and light trucks in the U.S. market

The following are Fiat Chrysler’s best-selling vehicles, based on full-year 2016 sales.

Fiat Chrysler’s best-selling vehicle is its Ram pickup, which sold 489,418 units, up 9%. Its sales trail those of its two primary rivals, the Ford F-150, which sold 820,799 last year, up 5%, and the Chevy Silverado, which sold 574,876, down 4%. The Ram comes in six basic models, which vary by size. The 1500 is the most popular of these. The Ram also comes with both diesel and gas engines.

Fiat Chrysler’s next best-selling car is the Jeep Grand Cherokee, with sales of 212,273 units last year. That was an 8% improvement. Grand Cherokee is the highest end Jeep model. It comes both with standard gasoline six-cylinder and eight-cylinder engines and the EcoDiesel option.

The Cherokee is Fiat Chrysler’s next best selling car, with sales of 199,736 last year, down 10%. At $24,000, its base price is about $7,000 less than the Grand Cherokee.

Jeep Wrangler sales were 191,744 last year, down 5%. The Wrangler’s base price point is almost exactly the same as the Cherokee’s.

The fifth best-selling vehicle in the Fiat Chrysler family is the Dodge Caravan minivan. Its sales were up 26% last year to 127,678.

Fiat Chrysler had an uncharacteristically poor year in 2016. Sales were flat at 2,252,877. Its Chrysler, Fiat and Dodge brands all lost ground. Sales improvement in the Jeep division slowed.