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FCA US sales stabilized in February, slipping just 1.3% on a daily-sales basis as Alfa Romeo and Jeep deliveries gained strength, offsetting losses by all other brands under the automaker’s halo.
Car sales fell 17.5% year-over-year to 20,042 while light-truck deliveries ticked up 1.5% to 144,514, according to Wards Intelligence data. February had 24 selling days, same as in 2017.
Alfa Romeo, fueled by deliveries of the Giulia sports sedan and all-new Stelvio CUV, posted a whopping 254.0% increase in sales. Jeep chipped in a 12.3% gain, led by a massive 485.5% leap for the Compass small CUV against year-ago low volume due to model changeover.
Jeep’s all-new Wrangler, on sale since December, already is boosting the bottom line as deliveries of FCA’s off-roader jumped 16.8% with nearly 16,000 sales for the month. Wrangler is up 10.8% for the first two months of the year.
FCA can’t get its all-new Ram to market soon enough as sales of the light-duty pickup slipped 14.7% on 31,952 deliveries. The Chrysler and Dodge brands were off 3.5% and 8.4%, respectively. The Chrysler Pacifica minivan was a bright spot with sales up 27%, while the Dodge Charger gained 9.2%. Buyers continued to scoop up remaining Dodge Caravan minivans, with deliveries up 20.2%.
Fiat’s swoon was unabated in February, losing 42.1% with all models except the 500L (+63.9%) posting steep declines.
[email protected] @bobgritzinger
