Sep 01, 2011

Chrysler wows; GM, VW sales up despite hurricane, earthquake
By James R. Healey, USA TODAY Updated 22m ago

Chrysler Group sales exploded in August, up a stunning 31% from a year ago, as the company's updated 2011 models stuck a chord with buyers.

August was the 17th consecutive month of sales gains over the year-ago month, the automaker said.

Standouts:

•Jeep brand, best sales since December 2007, and up 58% from August a year Chrysler sold more Jeep Wranglers than any other model except its Ram pickup in August, helping the company's sales jump 31%.
CAPTIONBy Jeepago.
•Dodge Grand Caravan family van, up 32%.
•Chrysler 200 (formerly Sebring), star of the Super Bowl TV ad in February, with the tag line "imported from Detroit," jumped 142%.
General Motors said its sales of new vehicles in August jumped 15.7% from the previous year in a month slapped down by Hurricane Irene, eroding consumer confidence and an Virginia earthquake that shook much of the eastern U.S.

"The 'new GM' is making the strides it promised. About the only negative signs on GM's spreadsheet of August sales were for models being discontinued or soon to be replaced," says Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at auto-market and price tracker Edmunds.com.

GM standouts:

•Chevrolet Cruze small car, up 58% vs. August 2010.
•GMC Acadia mid-size SUV, up 54% vs. a year ago.
•All Cadillac CTS models, sedan, coupe and wagon, together were up 39%.
Volkswagen, aggressively trying to boost U.S. sales, said its August tally was 10% better than last year's, even though two key cars, Passat and Beetle, have been redesigned for the 2012 model year and aren't on sale yet.

Sales champ was the recently redesigned and lower-price Jetta compact sedan. VW said it expects to hit 300,000 U.S. sales this year, up from about 257,000 last year.

•Jetta sales were up 55% in August, VW said.
•Touareg, a big SUV, more than doubled sales.
•Diesels were under the hoods of about 24% of all VWs sold in August.

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