Plenty of gearheads signed on the line for a Gladiator or Wrangler last month.
April held some news for purveyors of the seven-slot brand, not all of it good. Last year’s mahoosive growth of Wrangler sales simply could not be sustained, as the nameplate dropped 25% in year-over-year results. However, it is important to note that last year’s Wrangler numbers were aided by a pair of factors.
First, there were a plethora of gearheads rushing to be one of the first to turn a wheel in the new JL. Second, there was a period of product overlap, as both the new and old Wranglers were on sale at the same time. Moving a total of 22,422 Wranglers is nothing to sneeze at, working out to roughly one Wrangler being sold every thirty seconds around the clock for a month. It was Jeep’s best-selling vehicle in April.
Gladiator sales currently total 437 for the year, with 314 of them being delivered in April. With the hotly anticipated pickup now starting to trickle into dealer showrooms, expect that number to explode in the coming months. Don’t forget: the company took 4190 orders in early April for the Launch Edition, meaning those sales will appear on the sheet soon as well.
Unsurprisingly, the Jeep brand is a powerhouse of sales at FCA, counting for 44.1% of all sales at the company last month and 43.1% so far this year. Eleswhere in the showroom, Compass and Grand Cherokee sales were up month-over-month while Renegade and Cherokee numbers slipped slightly.
Note well: FCA will stop reporting sales on a monthly basis after June’s results. They are moving to a quarterly reporting system, choosing to fall in line with GM and Ford instead of retaining a unique position of allowing extra transparency. Toyota and Nissan, the other two truck companies whose sales on which we regularly report, are presently continuing their practice of monthly reporting.