Jeep - the canary in the automotive coal mine (03May2023)
This section (in italics) is taken from Twitter user CarDealershipGuy: Jeep is the most *under-discussed* canary in the coal mine in the car world: It just had its *worst* first quarter in at least six years with sales falling 20%. For starters, Jeep launched a line of luxury SUVs in 2021. But Jeep's timing couldn't have been worse... This was right before the economy peaked and interest rates started rising, stifling consumer demand for expensive vehicles. Jeep sold a measly 2,000 Grand Wagoneers and about 5,600 Wagoneers across the entire U.S. in Q1. An absolute textbook case of a bull-market investment manifesting in a bear-market. But it's not just the Wagoneer... Jeep's volume-leading Grand Cherokee had a sales decline of *27%* to 54,502 units in Q1. And if you needed more proof that people are disinterested in overpriced luxury Jeeps and simply want affordable... Jeep's least expensive models — Cherokee and Compass — were the *only* models that experienced a y...