Chrysler sales surging as GM stutters

Sales in the American car market have increased by 13.8 percent in the first two months of 2012; Mazda fastest growing brand. Chrysler maintained its stellar performance on the American cars sales charts with yet another 40 percent plus surge in sales during February.Chrysler sold 133,251 vehicles in February compared to 95,102 vehicles for the same period last year, and remained in fifth place on the charts.Since the start of the year Chrysler Group sold 234,670 vehicles, an increase of 42.0 percent; in doing so Chrysler is closing in fast on its superiors. General Motors suffered a sub-average industry sales growth of just 1.1 percent and Ford Motors increased sales by 14.3 percent to 178,644 vehicles.Volkswagen Group sales grew by 33.9 percent for the month to 39,273 vehicles to which Volkswagen brand sales contributed 30,577 cars, an increase of 42.5 percent compared to February 2011 figures.Since the start of the year Mazda has shown the fastest growth rate of 47.5 percent selling 49,647 vehicles leading Chrysler, who with sales of 234,670 vehicles, has a growth rate of 42.0 percent.Although GM suffered the worst start of the year among the big auto groups, with a decline of 2.2 percent in sales to 377,268 vehicles, its senior management can take heart from the improving demand of the controversial Chevrolet Volt.Sales surged by 264.1 percent to 1,024 cars compared to February 2011, recovering from the bad publicity it suffered following the battery fire cases that were investigated by the NHTSA at the end of last year, which necessitated a new build enhancement for the car.In the first two months Chevrolet sold 1,626 Volt cars, an increase of 170 percent. The Leaf, Nissan's EV, has recorded sales of 487 cars, an increase of 627 percent over February 2011 figures, but a steep decline from January sales figure of 676 cars.Overall sales in the American market increased by 13.8 percent to over 2 million vehicles. Interestingly, passenger cars sales rose by 22.1 percent to well over 1 million units, overtaking trucks whose sales grew by just 5.8 percent in the first two months of the year to 982,217 units.