Stellantis had a very bad quarter in the United States, but how did it compare to other automakers in sales of key vehicles?
Chrysler Corporation invented the minivan in both the USA and France, starting American development in 1972 and French development before selling SIMCA to Peugeot. While the Chrysler marque did not have a minivan at first, it is the only Mopar line to have one now. Year to date, the company sold 92,386 minivans, quite a good haul if well below the Q1-to-Q3-2023 numbers. Honda didn’t even come close, with just 59,248 sales; nor did the Kia Carnival, with 34,727 sales. Toyota’s hybrid-only Sienna gamble didn’t do better, with 50,789 sales. Mopar remains the minivan king so far in 2024.
In pickups, the story is bleaker though sales were higher. They sold 268,666 Ram pickups of all types, including chassis cabs, far below Ford’s 550,835 F-series or Chevrolet’s 404,856 Silverados. It looks like Ford was the champ but that’s only if you ignore GMC’s 229,398 Sierras. GM remains the pickup king.
In muscle cars, the Challenger, not made since the end of 2023, still managed 24,874 sales; the Charger, including presumably a handful of new models, reached 31,980. Ford sold 36,485 Mustangs in the same period, which means the Challenger did quite well given that there were no new Challengers! At Chevrolet, the Camaro was only good for 5,750 sales; it too is no longer made. Challenger was not the muscle car king, but it certainly had a good showing in its final year (as far as anyone knows) of sales.
In small cars, Fiat managed to sell just 786 cars year to date, an embarassing figure given that they imported 347 500e models as well as selling 347 500Xs. The best comparison car for this is probably Mini, which had 10,676 Cooper S sales against the 500, and 6,876 Countryman sales against the 500X. That easily beat not just Fiat but Alfa Romeo thrown in for the bargain.
One final comparison is the Wagoneer, which had 37,427 ordinary-Wagoneer and 10,185 Grand Wagoneer sales. GM is the king of the big SUV, so comparisons are a bit unfair—but they sold 30,512 Suburbans and 71,780 Tahoes, and 58,793 Yukons. The Grand Wagoneer goes up against the Cadillac Escalade, with 27,992 Cadillacs trading hands.
Ford is a more fair comparison; the Expedition cleared 58,124 and the Navigator cleared 11,034 sales. Jeep did relatively well as the new kid on the block, coming quite close to Lincoln.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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