Fiat Chrysler January Sales Tumble on Slow Jeep Sales

By Paul Ausick Updated Jan 12, 3:17PM EST · Published Feb 1, 11:05AM EST

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Fiat Chrysler January Sales Tumble on Slow Jeep Sales — © courtesy of FCA US LLC

[cnxvideo id=”507734″ placement=”ros”]Year over year, sales dropped 11% at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) in January to 152,218 units. The Jeep brand posted a sales drop of 7% year over year as the Jeep Compass showed a year-over-year sales decline of 50% and the Patriot posted a sales drop of 45%. Grand Cherokee sales rose 24% and Renegade sales increased by 52%.

According to industry researcher firm ALG, FCA’s incentive spending came in at $4,291 per unit, up 22% year over year and up 0.5% compared with November 2016. Unit incentive spending totaled $4,190 at Ford and $4,611 at GM, up 34% and 14%, respectively, year over year.

Analysts at Kelley Blue Book (KBB) had projected January sales at 147,000 units, a 14.2% year-over-year decrease. KBB also estimated average selling price of $36,236 for January, down 2% year over year in sales and down 1.1% month over month in average selling price.

The company’s Jeep brand sold a total of 58,415 units in January. The all-new Jeep Renegade sold 9,365 units in January.

Ram pickup sales increased 4% in January to 33,769 units. Last year, Ram sold 32,564 pickups in January.

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Year over year, sales of the company’s Chrysler brand dropped 39% as sales of the Chrysler 200 fell 60% to 1,861 in January. FCA is doing its best to sell all dealer inventory on this discontinued model. Sales of the Chrysler 300 fell 17% to 4,708 units. The all-new Pacifica minivan posted January sales of 6,670, and it has sold more than 69,000 since first becoming widely available in April 2016.

The company’s Dodge brand sales fell 17% year over year in January, while sales of the Dodge Caravan dropped 2% to 10,770 units in the month. The company’s Journey compact SUV saw sales rise 9% year over year to 12,636 units sold in January.

Passenger car and minivan sales were down 30% year over year, utility vehicle sales were down 6% and total truck and light commercial vehicle sales rose 5%. Maserati sales jumped 69% year over year from 525 in January 2016 to 889.

Chrysler’s shares traded down about 1.5% Wednesday morning, at $10.82 in a 52-week range of $5.45 to $11.32. The consensus price target on the stock is $15.39.

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About the Author Paul Ausick →

Paul Ausick has been writing for a673b.bigscoots-temp.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.