The automaker recorded a 7% increase in January, compared to a year earlier, to 145,007 units, despite rough weather in the Northeast that undermined the broader industry.
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Fiat Chrysler’s sales jumped 7 per cent to just over 155,000 cars and trucks.
Kelley Blue Book expected Fiat Chrysler to lead major manufacturers in year-over-year growth, however only anticipated the company reporting a 1 percent sales increase.
Among the Japanese, Toyota Motor Corp. fell 4.7 percent to 161,283 vehicles during the month. Big East Coast metro areas such as NY and Washington, D.C., were buried under more than 2 feet of snow the weekend of January 22. That pace would be an increase of half a million from January 2015, which had two more sales days than last month.
This was Fiat Chrysler’s 70th straight month of year-on-year monthly sales gains in the USA market.
The Jeep models gaining the most were the Compass and the Patriot. The sales month did not start until January 5 since New Year’s Day landed on a Friday.
Specifically, Jeep brand sales rose 15 percent, Dodge brand sales were up 19 percent in January. General Motors’ sales were flat.
Ford, the nation’s second-largest seller after GM, said its light vehicle sales slumped 2.8% to 172,478, hurt by lower incentives on its F-150 pickup.
Surging demand for SUVs and trucks, which has been partly driven by cheaper gas prices and low interest rates, is supporting higher transaction prices.
January “supports our forecast that we’ll top 18 million in total annual sales for the first time”, said Eric Lyman, vice president of industry insights at pricing information provider TrueCar Inc. WardsAuto, which the USA government uses for economic analysis, said the annualized rate was 17.46 million and that monthly sales fell 0.4 percent from a year ago.
Despite some very strong headwinds, vehicle and truck sales for January are coming in fairly even with 2015 levels-when they were expected to be down about three per cent. Every one of its Lexus luxury cars fell by at least 10 per cent, including a 17 per cent drop for the unit’s top-selling ES sedan.
A great month for Buick pushed GM sales up half a percent.
Honda’s sales dropped 2 percent to 100,497 vehicles.
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Nissan’s sales rose 1.6 percent to 105,734.
