Chrysler: Getting Aggressive Through Year-End

Chrysler: Getting Aggressive Through Year-End

By Michelle Krebs

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Determined to put some plus signs on its monthly sales reports by year-end, Chrysler rolled out to its dealers last week an "aggressive" incentives and marketing plan for the rest of the year.

Now out of the leasing business with Chrysler Financial, Chrysler will focus its incentives on cash rebates and discounted interest financing to fit the consumer's monthly payment need and to drive down the automaker's inventory of 2008 models, Steve Landry, Chrysler's executive vice president of sales told the media in a conference call Wednesday.

For instance, Chrysler is offering up to $6,000 discounts or no-interest financing for 72 months plus a $1,000 cash rebate on leftover 2008 Dodge Rams to clear out the old inventory to make for the redesigned 2009 Ram.

Chrysler also is offering a $750 rebate to people currently leasing who return to a Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep showroom and finance the purchase of a new vehicle. The automaker is offering up to $2,000 on selected 2008 models to consumers who lease a Chrysler product through an independent finance institution.

"We've crafted a strong program," Landry said in a conference call. "We're not staying flat-footed -- and we'll get very aggressive in fourth quarter. We're looking for positive sales in those months."

Chrysler laid out to dealers who gathered last week in movie theaters across the country for a Web cast outlining the bones of the incentives plan and the advertising and marketing to back it up. Details of specific model-by-model incentives were going to dealers Thursday.

Landry noted that instead of the typical 30-day incentive and marketing plan, Chrysler this time has laid out a plan for the full fourth quarter.

"We're locked down for the next 90 days as far as incentives. We've mapped out the marketing and advertising so our dealers have a better opportunity to do their local planning with what we are doing nationally," Landry said. "Hopefully, we'll have a more effective and efficient campaign and drive more sales than what we've been doing."

Added Landry: "We need to focus. Even this month [September] as bad as it was, the industry sold nearly 1 million vehicles. We want our share."

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.