U.S. sales chief for Chrysler to depart
As Chrysler Group sales sag and its big pickups and V-8powered cars and sport utility vehicles pile up on dealers’ lots, the company’s U.S. sales chief has decided to depart.
The automaker, the U.S. arm of DaimlerChrysler of Germany, said Tuesday that Joe Eberhardt, vice president of global sales and marketing, would leave to join a Mercedes-Benz dealership.
Although Chrysler Group would say only that Eberhardt had been thinking of rejoining the retail side of the business for some time, industry insiders said he was taking the fall for the automaker’s poor sales showing this year.
Sales of Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles were off 7.7% for the first 11 months this year, and Chrysler Group reportedly is paying dealers as much as $7,000 per vehicle in incentives to sell 2006 models. The company’s dealers had unsold inventory of 499,000 cars and trucks nationwide at the end of November, about one-third of them 2006 models.
“They’ve got to blame someone for that, and he’s the fall guy,” industry analyst Ken Elias of independent research firm Maryann Keller & Associates said of Eberhardt’s departure.
The automaker, Elias said, has been caught with too many of “the wrong products, big trucks and SUVs and no real small car, at a time the environment is changing and people want smaller, more efficient cars.”
Chrysler Group reported a $1.5-billion loss in the third quarter and has ordered reductions in factory output through the end of the year to try to bring supplies of its cars and trucks in line with weakened demand.
A spokeswoman for the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company said Eberhardt was unavailable for comment.
Chrysler Group’s sales and marketing executives will now report to Chief Executive Tom LaSorda, the company said in a statement.
Eberhardt, 43, joined Chrysler Group in 2003 after running DaimlerChrysler’s British operations.
The executive joined Mercedes-Benz in his native Germany in 1982 as a student in a work-study program. He became general manager of the company-owned Mercedes-Benz Manhattan dealership in 1990, returned to Mercedes-Benz corporate operations in 1995 and was named chief executive of DaimlerChrysler’s British operations in 1999.
Eberhardt’s departure follows earlier upheaval in Chrysler’s sales and marketing operations. Gary Dilts, who was senior vice president of U.S. sales, and Raymond Fisher, vice president of sales, service and parts, announced their retirements in June.
DaimlerChrysler, including Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz, has lost its No. 3 U.S. market ranking this year to Toyota Motor Corp. The Japanese automaker’s sales have risen 12.5% through November on the popularity of its fuel-efficient vehicles.
In an effort to diversify its lineup, Chrysler has introduced 10 models this year, including the compact Dodge Caliber car and Jeep Compass SUV. But most of the new models aren’t reaching dealerships until this quarter.
Seven teams of executives, led by LaSorda and Chief Operating Officer Eric Ridenour, are scrutinizing Chrysler operations to find ways to cut costs by at least $1,000 per vehicle and to improve sales.
Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.
