Seven FCA vehicles set sales records for November, including the Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Compass, Jeep Patriot, Jeep Wrangler, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Journey and Ram pickup truck. Alfa Romeo sold 44 copies of the 4C sports auto in November. Proceeds of the Bridge Loan and Term Loan will be used to refinance indebtedness owing to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and other indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes.
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Not all forecasters are predicting sales gains in November, however.
Vehicle sales are on track to reach their highest November sales volume since 2001, as Black Friday deals against a favorable economic backdrop helped buoy a traditionally sluggish month damped by fewer selling days.
FCA’s incentive spending appears to be rising: CFO Richard Palmer said earlier this year that FCA’s North America unit would seek to improve its profit margins in part by ratcheting down its use of incentives to boost sales. Nissans sales rose 4 percent.
“We saw strong customer demand for our cars and SUVs with the latest technology and sold a very rich mix in November”, Mark LaNeve, Ford’s head of USA sales and service, said in a statement. KBB analysts also reported that Chrysler’s average transaction price last month was $34,353, up just 0.1% compared with the average price in October and up 3.8% year over year for the month.
Year over year, sales of the company’s Chrysler brand fell 12% as sales of the new Chrysler 200 tumbled 28% year over year in November to 10,332.
Among other major automakers, the projected gains for November were 2.4 percent at Toyota Motor Corp. and 2.5 percent at Hyundai/Kia, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts. Sales of Ford’s Escape, its second-best seller, plunged 18 percent last month, leading a 9.7 percent decline in SUV sales.
Dodge brand sales fell 8% on a year-over-year basis, much of that due to the discontinuation of the midsize Avenger sedan.
General Motors Co.’s sales rose 1.5% for the month to 229,296 light vehicles.
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Automakers spent 6 percent more last month on incentives than they did a year ago, according to TrueCar Inc., a vehicle pricing research firm, with the average discount topping $3,000 a vehicle. The consensus SAAR estimate calls for unit sales of 18.1 million this year.
