Chrysler Town & Country Wins 2010 Minivan Battle
The bottom line for Chrysler in 2010 was simple: Per Fred Diaz, lead executive for the Chrysler Group's U.S. sales efforts, the automaker's "sales of 1.1. million units are consistent with our sales objective that we presented in our Nov. 4, 2009, five-year business plan." Except for the fact that "1.1 million" represents Chrysler rounding up its actual sales by about 15,000 units'”but is that really a significant number? It's hard to tell, which is why this is the perfect illustration of where Chrysler is right now. If you sort of "round up" the company's current position in the marketplace, there's reason for optimism; if you don't, there isn't. Certainly the 2010 performance of the Chrysler Town & Country was an unalloyed success. Even facing two all-new competitors, the T&C was the best-selling minivan in the country last year.
Battling a Double Whammy
The Town & Country faced a significant challenge in 2010. The Honda Odyssey, which had been the top seller in the minivan segment for two consecutive years, was launching an all-new model based on a much-hyped concept vehicle. The Toyota Sienna, which trailed the Chrysler by a mere 500 units in '09, was going to be completely redesigned as well. True, the T&C was going to get a rather thorough refresh, but not until the 2010 season was essentially over.
Yet when the year wrapped up, some 112,275 customers had purchased a Town & Country, an improvement of 33 percent over 2009. The Odyssey came in at 108,182 sales, a bump of 8.7 percent for the year, and the Swagger Wagon finished at 98,337 units, an increase of 17.7 percent. And notably, that performance by the Sienna left it in fourth place out of the four big minivan contenders, because the Dodge Grand Caravan rang up a 14 percent gain on the year, attracting 103,323 buyers.
The Recall Effect?
The end result is like one of those athletic contests in which the underdog wins and everyone pins the outcome on what the favorites did wrong, not what the other guys did right.
For the Odyssey, many people were underwhelmed when the 2011 production model made its appearance. That "lightning bolt" design cue was interesting, but the overall package was nowhere near as innovative as the sleek and scissor-doored Honda Skydeck concept lead observers to believe it would be. The Sienna had packaging problems of its own, starting with an available four-cylinder engine that took the V-6 model's EPA line of 18 mpg city/24 mpg highway all the way to 19/24.
But I also wonder if recalls didn't wreak havoc with both these vehicles. Toyota's quality woes are well known, and I'm thinking that in the minivan segment, where safety is at a premium, the affect on buyer perceptions may have been particularly notable. And even though Honda didn't put up the same sort of overall recall numbers that Toyota did, the former did have troubles of its own'”especially with the Odyssey. Hundreds of thousands of late-model Honda minivans were recalled for airbag issues, potential brake problems and liftgate-strut failures in 2010, and customers no doubt noticed.
Minivan Market: 2011 Outlook
This year, sales in the minivan segment should continue to grow, but so too will the challenges. That's courtesy of a completely redesigned 2011 Nissan Quest that will be joining the fray in the near future. Now, Nissan has been showing some interesting design choices away from the car side lately, with models like the Nissan Juke and the coming Nissan Murano convertible being top examples. The Quest is set to follow in their tire tracks with some relatively dramatic sheet metal, but Nissan is showing some canny marketing. Despite the minivan's funky design, Nissan is still firmly positioning the Quest as a family friendly minivan. That's a marked contrast to Honda and Toyota (and Dodge), all of which seem set on trying to showcase their offerings as minivans for people who don't like minivans.
That could leave the Quest in the sweet spot of the minivan marketplace as a fresh-looking entry that still caters to the segment's traditional buyers.
So where does that leave the Chrysler Group's minivans? 2010 proved that people still feel a lot of loyalty toward the T&C and Grand Caravan, and improved models for 2011 should almost certainly mean improved sales'”even facing three tough competitors like the Odyssey, Sienna and Quest.