October 2014 US New-Auto Sales: Chrysler Up 22% As Jeep Sales Soar

Chrysler Group LLC said Monday it sold 170,480 vehicles in the United States last month, a 22 percent increase from October 2013, with all Jeep and Chrysler brand vehicles reporting growth. Total sales for the month were the best since 2001.

“Chrysler Group is the industry’s fastest-growing automaker, driven in part by sales of our all-new Jeep Cherokee and Chrysler 200 midsize sedan and by the strong consumer demand for our award-winning Ram pickup trucks,” Reid Bigland, head of U.S. sales for the Chrysler division of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Chrysler Group is now in its 55th consecutive month of sales growth five years after the Auburn Hills, Michigan, automaker’s government-administered bankruptcy. October sales are up 159 percent from the same month in 2009.

Jeep brand sales are up 52 percent, with all five current models growing sales last month, including the Compass with a 5 percent increase. The Compass was going to be discontinued, but demand for the compact crossover led Chrysler to continue building it. The Compass and the Patriot, which saw a 17 percent sales increase, will be replaced with one as-of-yet unannounced Jeep model by the middle of 2016 as part of Fiat Chrysler’s five-year plan that includes taking Jeep production global.

The new Chrysler 200 sedan and an aggressive marketing campaign this year has helped to lift the sales of the brand by 17 percent. Chrysler Town & Country luxury minivan deliveries increased 4 percent ahead of the introduction of the new 2016 model next year.

Dodge sales fell 8 percent, as consumers shied away from the Charger, Challenger, Caravan and Durango, but Dodge Dart sales jumped 28 percent, to 4,301 units.

Ram saw a 36 percent leap, as consumers drove away with 33 percent more of Chrysler’s best-selling Ram pickups last month.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FCAU on Oct. 13 as part of Chrysler Group’s merger with Italian automaker Fiat SpA. Fiat Chrysler is the world’s seventh-largest automaker by sales volume.