Chrysler still leads minivan market

Anthony Fontanelle
December 16, 2007

According to Chrysler LLC, their minivans are selling good but not as good as what the automaker expects them to be. The company is presently under rehabilitation and is aiming for profitability soon, and their minivan segment is very vital to the success of these plans.

Determined to amass the needed cash for its recovery and strengthen its minivan sales, Chrysler announced its plans of idling its Windsor plant in Ontario, Canada for two weeks in January for inventory reduction. The new Dodge Caravan, which the automaker had invested much on advertisements, is now being threatened by the Honda Odyssey as the top-selling minivan in America. Last November, the Honda Odyssey sold 3,300 more vehicles than the Dodge Caravan. Chrysler LLC has put up $1,500 worth of incentives in its minivans to solve not just the Caravan threat but to elevate its over-all minivan sales.

"The vans are a little bit slow sales-wise and customers have been a little bit slow to come around to them," said Mark McCready, vice president of market planning and pricing for the Carsdirect.com automotive Web site.

On the other hand, Chrysler’s other minivan; the Chrysler Town & Country sold 10 percent more in November.

Because Chrysler have higher hopes for their minivans and is really working on it, regardless of threats from other vehicles in the segment, the Dodge Caravan and the Chrysler Town & Country is still the leader in the minivan market controlling 40 percent of the segment regardless of how well the Odyssey, one of Honda’s best sellers in its vehicle line-up that also includes the Honda Passport equipped with a Honda Passport brake booster.

The two Chrysler minivans are well-celebrated especially the 2008 models. The second-row seats that swivel and the passengers can sit around a table are gaining some buzz.

"They have been very, very well received," said Steve Miller Sr., a Dodge dealer in Vestal, N.Y.

According to Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli last Thursday, sales of Chrysler vehicles are on their way to meet the company’s target and their plans of shutting down some of its facilities are in preparation for the expected flat market in 2008.

"I think it's more a function of looking at the industry and really making sure that we appropriately size ourselves," Nardelli said during a holiday party for media in Detroit. "We certainly don't want to get back to where we were, and having an overinflated inventory."

"The general perception is, these days, that the Odyssey is probably a superior product and the Toyota Sienna is a good product," Nerad said. "Chrysler needed to throw that kind of marketing dollar at it to get people to consider it."

Source:  Amazines.com