Dakota Marketing Problems

ALLPAR.COM | by TexasBill - - I'd like to add some perspective to what's been posted about the Dakota.

American compact pickups:
Dodge Dakota: 61,473 -28.7%
Chevrolet Colorado: 72,341 -32.3%
Ford Ranger: 72,179 -27.8%
GMC Canyon: 18,362 -36.8%

Check out the Japanese compact trucks:
Toyota Tacoma: 133,912 +6.6% (80,031 4X2, up 6.2%, and 53,881 4X4, up 7.1%) Nissan Frontier: 61,900 +11.2%

All figures are year-to-date, manufacturer-reported sales through Sept. 30. It looks to me like the Dakota isn't doing so bad compared to its domestic competition.

Basically what has happened is that sales of American compact pickups have plunged over the past four years. Dakota sales are down 42%, Ranger sales are down 60%. The Colorado and Canyon have only been reporting sales since November 2003, but their sales peaked quickly in 2005 and have dropped sharply so far this year. In contrast, the Japanese pickups have steadily grown. In the past four years, sales of the Tacoma have risen almost 14% and those of the Frontier are up over 26%.

As I noted in my sales report, the Chrysler numbers are worrisome. But there seems to be a problem with DaimlerChrysler being able to have both sides of the house do well at the same time. If you will recall, after the original merger/takeover/whatever, Mercedes was the star and Chrysler was the basket case everyone was screaming about. Then Mercedes started to have quality problems and Chrysler, with the new HEMI and spiffy new cars, was the hero of the earnings report. Now the pendulum seems to be swinging back: Mercedes is having record months and Chrysler is having troubles again. However, if, as was mentioned earlier, if you look at the results for the lines that have reported sales for at least a year and aren't discontinued, Chrysler volume was actually up 1.54% in September, though the extra selling day would still have left Chrysler with a 2.37% deficit. (September 2005 had only 25 selling days, there were 26 this year.)

Yes, Chrysler is going to post a pretty significant loss and we should hope they learn from the lesson the market teaches - don't let any of your bread-and-butter lines waste away. $3.00 gas came along and Chrysler didn't have a story to tell that was in touch with the times. Bad idea, especially when it would have been possible to avoid the problem by prudent product planning.

By the way, 8,000 sales per month isn't bad. Out of 290 vehicle models with sales reported in September, only the top 52 reported sales of 8,000 units or more. Out of 160 car models reporting sales, the Chrysler 300 was No. 15, the Dodge Charger was No. 17 and Caliber was No. 23. The Chrysler 300 was the best-selling premium-badged car in the U.S. in September.