The overall new car and light truck market in the US was up by 18 percent during April and the Chrysler Group slotted right in between its two Detroit rivals: GM was up 26 percent while Ford was up 13 percent. The key Japanese brands all underperformed the overall market: Nissan (+12 percent) and Honda (+10 percent) both made double-digit gains while Toyota (+1 percent) struggled as the impact of the Tsunami bit into its inventories; however the Korean carmakers had a very good month: Kia (+57 percent) and Hyundai (+40 percent) booth easily outperformed the overall market's rise.

The Chrysler Group's divisions had a mixed month with the big driver being Jeep as all its model portfolio posted gains in April led by the new Grand Cherokee (+189 percent) which added almost ten thousand units and the refreshed Compass (+181 percent) which breached the four thousand units barrier. Ram was also a winner, its key pick up model added four thousand sales and its other offering, the Dakota, was up by a third.

Dodge posted a 14 percent year-on-year climb in April after turning in a mixed performance. The returning Durango (a Jeep Grand Cherokee spin-off) nameplate added five thousand unit sales, while the refreshed Avenger mid-size sedan was up 26 percent year-on-year. However other refreshed models didn't fare too well: the recently tweaked Journey was flat as was the facelifted Charger. The Chrysler brand continues to be the weak link in the Group's chain and it lost 9 percent year-on-year during April. The facelifted 200/Sebring helped keep the brand's loss to single figures however as it doubled its sales year-on-year to eight thousand units (and along with the Avenger gave the Group its best month for selling mid-size sedans since March 2008). However the refreshed Town & Country minivan as well as the facelifted executive 300 series (the sister model to Dodge's Charger) didn't perform well, the former saw its sales down a third and the latter lost a fifth.

The Fiat 500 added another 882 units during as the Italian brand's much-delayed Stateside relaunch now slowly stutters into life and the momentum grows. Coupled with the 500 units of the special "Prima" edition that were delivered during March, the 500's sales were up 76 percent month on month to stand at 1,382 units for the year-to-date as the Mexico-built supermini starts to make an impact on the Chrysler group's overall sales data. The Chrysler Group finished the month with a 70-day supply of inventory (304,168 units). U.S. industry sales figures for April are projected at an estimated 13.4 SAAR.

“Both our retail car and truck sales were up significantly in April as we continued to build upon our sales growth momentum on the heels of a solid first quarter,” said Fred Diaz, President and CEO – Ram Truck Brand and Lead Executive for U.S. Sales. “Our mid-size cars had their best month since March 2008, and every Jeep and Ram Truck model that we sell experienced a year-over-year sales gain in April. Our truck and SUV sales remained strong in April even in the face of rising gas prices at the pump. Our new product line up is resonating quite well with consumers.”