When you think about it – Chrysler is actually the only auto group that truly doesn’t lease cars or trucks. In July 2008, they announced that they were not going to lease anymore vehicles, now however – they might have to actually switch up that kind of thinking. The reason for the stopping of the leasing was because they were trying to force buyers into actually buying a car versus just leasing it.
However – the plan kind of back-fired on them, as after leasing was discontinued, Chrysler’s market share actually dropped by about 11.3% to 9.2%. The decline was in part by Chrysler’s very public bankruptcy proceedings and it very lackluster product line, however there is little doubt that this year – Chrysler will be back on track.
It seems that leasing is going to be coming back as well, on September 18th actually, it should be coming back for the general public!
February of 2009 has been a major headache for the top six car manufacturers in US. Sales sank for more than 37 percent, and it is the worst ever, since December of 1981.
To note, General Motors had the biggest decline among the giant car companies with 53.1 percent, Ford Motor with 49.5 percent decline and Chrysler who slide down 44.0 percent. Toyota sales also sank with 39.8 percent, while Honda and Nissan with 37 percent.
A sad but true fact, US monthly sales still failed to rise, since October 2007, along with the 15-month global economic recession. For three consecutive months, the year-over-year decline was 0.7 percent. As for the month of February, consumer’ confidence decreased due to the impact of the economic recession.
Despite car manufacturers’ efforts to boost their car sales by incentive spending by 15.9 percent, still, the industry suffers decline in sales. Last February, Ford was traumatized with the collapse of its bestseller vehicle, the F-series pick-up, with only 23,614 trucks purchased, a dramatic decrease of 55.1 percent from a year earlier.
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