Caliber Could Be Cute - Small car attracts more women to Dodge

BRADFORD WERNLE | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS AutoWeek | Published 08/14/06, 7:46 am et -

DETROIT - When it comes to attracting female customers, Dodge, with its "Ram tough" image and aggressive styling, often brings up the rear of the industry pack. But the Dodge Caliber may be changing that perception - even though it has hard-edged Dodge styling and an ad campaign that disdains the cuteness akin to its predecessor, the Neon. From February, when the economy car went on sale, through July, 42.9 percent of Caliber's customers were women, according to the Power Information Network. That's below the Chrysler group's target of 50 percent but considerably higher than the percentage of female buyers for most Dodge vehicles. From Jan. 1 through July, 27.2 percent of all Dodge buyers were women. Only GMC (23.2) and Porsche (21.2) attracted a lower percentage. Andy Palmen, chairman of the Dodge National Dealer Council and owner of Palmen Motors in Kenosha, Wis., says Caliber's strong performance among women doesn't surprise him. "From day one, we were selling this car to every gender and age group," Palmen says. "We're seeing a lot of mature women buying this car." Palmen thinks new vehicles in the pipeline will bring more women to Dodge stores. The 2006 Nitro, an entry-level SUV based on the Jeep Liberty platform, is likely to appeal to women when it arrives this fall, he says. Says Mark Spencer, senior manager of Dodge communications: "I think we saw Caliber as an opportunity to get new consumers into the Dodge brand regardless of gender. We really didn't have a gender play on Caliber. It was a 50-50 male-female target." Steve Saxty, executive director of marketing solutions for J.D. Power and Associates, says the Neon was also attractive to women - 46.5 percent of buyers in 2005, its last full year on sale. Says Saxty: "All these female buyers haven't popped up out of nowhere. They've popped out of Neon."