Fiat Chrysler Sales Up 6.2% in July

The Jeep model posted a sales achieve of 23% yr over yr for the model’s best-ever July complete.

Year-to date, Ford’s US sales increased by 1.2 million units, up 2.3%.

Car-buying website TrueCar Inc TRUE. Ram ProMaster sales were up 25 percent, the full-size van’s best July sales since it was launched in October 2013. Toyota’s sales increased by less than 1% to 217181.

SUV’s & luxury autos are the ones selling the fastest which is the defying the recession era predictions of downsizing.

Another big motivator: status. Lincoln’s new SUVs also prompted the brand’s best numbers in a decade. Challenger sales were up 20 percent as the muscle vehicle logged its sixth sales record this year. ProMaster City sales were up 33 percent compared with the previous month of June.

Sales of luxury brands have been increasing rapidly since 2013 but there are several reasons for this. The study is based on responses from more than 84,000 owners of new 2015 model year vehicles during the first 90 days of ownership. More impressively, Renegade is pulling buyers out of Hondas, Kias, Subarus, and Volkswagens – all brands that Jeep hasn’t historically had much success luring buyers from. Dominique said Millennials are now leasing luxury cars at a higher rate than other generations. But that wasn’t the case. “It is a cultural phenomenon”, Dominique stated.

To compare sales over the past 10 years is not exact science, but it shows that Fiat Chrysler is continuously growing sales. Low interest rates have also helped some luxury buyers lower their monthly lease or loan payments.

– Honda’s gross sales rose eight % to 146,324. Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck gross sales have been up 34 % in July.

The F-Series total of 66,288 was up 5%.

Ford said the sale of trucks and utilities rose 10% during the month, while the sale of cars declined 4%.

But he’s confident that “rising stars”, such as Toyota, which he gives 9 to 10 percent upside, will help propel auto equities upward. Ford said sales of its C-Max hybrid plunged 36% in July and its subcompact Fiesta fell 27%. But vehicle sales were down. Prius hybrid sales dropped 13 per cent.

For Fiat Chrysler, deliveries of the Chrysler 200 nearly doubled to 15,108, helping the three-vehicle Chrysler brand to a 9.7 percent gain for the month. Volkswagen’s sales rose 2 percent. Honda’s auto sales were up 3 percent. Sales of the XV Crosstrek small SUV jumped 30 per cent but sales of the Outback SUV fell 8 per cent from last July, which was a record July for the Outback. Its 6.2 percent gain exceeded the 4.8 percent average estimate.

With the third quarter underway and the US market surging to heights it hasn’t seen since the mid-2000s, the big question now isn’t whether 2015 will surpass 2014 in total new vehicle sales – it’s whether 2015 will see an 18-million pace in the second half, setting the stage for an even more robust 2016.