Jeep's sales in Australia are nose diving despite new models arriving and the brand having a loyal following, so what's going on?
Many other car makers would love to have the type of cult following that Jeep has but when it comes to sales Jeep has consistently underperformed compared to its rivals such as Toyota and Ford.
At the halfway point of the year, the sales of all of Jeep's models except for one are down compared to this time in 2022 with total sales so far standing at 2669.
Selling best in June was the Wrangler with 166 sales for the month and 592 sales for the year so far, representing a 10 per cent increase on year-to-date sales compared to 2022.
Not even Jeep's flagship the Grand Cherokee which launched in seven-seat form in 2022, followed by the five-seater this year can seem to spark much interest with sales for the year sitting on 732, down 26 per cent on 2022.
The Compass was Jeep's best seller for June with 214 sales for a total of 862 for the year so far, which is only 4.2 per cent down on this time last year for the model.
Rounding out the Jeep line-up is off-road Gladiator ute with 124 sales in June and a total of 467 sales for the year so far - down 36.1 per cent on 2022.
Skewing the figures slightly is the global axing of the Cherokee mid-sized SUV in 2022. With dwindling stock, just one Cherokee was sold in June, making 158 for the year or an 89.9 per cent decrease on the year before.
While it's clear why Cherokee numbers are down, CarsGuide reached out to Jeep Australia to ask why the sales for nearly all its other models are down. Are the seemingly floundering sales a case of a lack of supply or was there some other cause for the less-than-impressive results?
"The all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee launched earlier this year was delayed by three months due to supply constraints," Fiat Chrysler Automobiles director of Corporate Communications Tracie Stoltenburg told Carsguide.
"June was the highest month of sales for both the Grand Cherokee five and seven-seater."
Jeep is no stranger to struggling sales with the brand. During the past several years, Jeep has gone from a high of over 8000 sales in 2017 to hitting a record low with 5519 sales in 2019.
That's a far cry from where Jeep was in Australia a decade ago when in 2013 it sold 20,170 cars including 12,931 Grand Cherokees in that year. Jeep went on to better that result in 2014 with 30,408 cars sold.
With 2669 sales at the halfway point of 2023, Jeep could end up selling fewer cars this year than that record low of 2019. It could well be the lowest sales recorded in almost 15 years.
Times have certainly changed for the entire industry and as we move into the electric era Jeep has promised to deliver EV models such as the Grand Cherokee 4xe hybrid and fully electric models such as the Recon and Wagoneer, which aren't expected until at least 2025.
It was only last year that Jeep Brand CEO Christian Meunier told CarsGuide that the new electric Wagoneer would steal buyers away from Range Rover and other luxury brands.
Looking at the sales currently, Wagoneer couldn't come soon enough.
