Chrysler officials have confirmed that the axe will drop on either the Jeep Liberty or the Dodge Nitro by the 2012 model year. Chrysler has decided to reduce the number of models offered, and has already announce other cuts, such as the Jeep Commander.
Steven Landry, vice president of North American sales, told industry analysts that the slow-selling Nitro and its near-twin, the Jeep Liberty, would be merged behind one nameplate within three years.
"If you put sales of Liberty and Nitro together, it's doing what we want it to do," Mr. Landry said while discussing the poor August sales of the two vehicles.
"As we move toward 2012, we won't have this dual branding," Mr. Landry said, citing a previously announced effort to scale back the automaker's offerings. "That's when we'll just come back with one branded body of those particular vehicles, instead of two."
Liberty's 4,654 sales were down 14 percent from August, 2007. Nitro's 1,991 sales fell 71 percent in August from the same period a year ago. For the year, Chrysler has sold 49,330 Libertys, down 20 percent from a year ago, and 27,540 Nitros, down 44 percent from last year.
Chrysler officials this year rolled out Project Genesis, an effort to eliminate duplicate vehicles within their product lineup to focus each of the company's three brands: Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge. The project would trim its dealer network to get them to sell all three brands.
From theblade
Steven Landry, vice president of North American sales, told industry analysts that the slow-selling Nitro and its near-twin, the Jeep Liberty, would be merged behind one nameplate within three years.
"If you put sales of Liberty and Nitro together, it's doing what we want it to do," Mr. Landry said while discussing the poor August sales of the two vehicles.
"As we move toward 2012, we won't have this dual branding," Mr. Landry said, citing a previously announced effort to scale back the automaker's offerings. "That's when we'll just come back with one branded body of those particular vehicles, instead of two."
Liberty's 4,654 sales were down 14 percent from August, 2007. Nitro's 1,991 sales fell 71 percent in August from the same period a year ago. For the year, Chrysler has sold 49,330 Libertys, down 20 percent from a year ago, and 27,540 Nitros, down 44 percent from last year.
Chrysler officials this year rolled out Project Genesis, an effort to eliminate duplicate vehicles within their product lineup to focus each of the company's three brands: Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge. The project would trim its dealer network to get them to sell all three brands.
From theblade
