Sales strategy means lower-priced Pacifica

[Sci-Fi]

From Auto.Com:

Sales strategy means lower-priced Pacifica

Chrysler will drop some luxury features

A sub-$30,000 version of the new Chrysler Pacifica will go on sale by fall as DaimlerChrysler AG's U.S. unit looks to accelerate sales of the new crossover wagon.

The Pacifica became the most expensive Chrysler-brand vehicle ever when it went on sale in March with a base price of $31,230 for front-wheel drive and $32,980 for all-wheel-drive models.

Chrysler expects the lower-priced model, which will replace leather with fabric seats and dispense with some upscale features like power adjustable pedals, to boost sales by making the Pacifica more affordable.

Chrysler expects to sell about 100,000 Pacificas annually. It sold 4,828 in the car's first three months on the market.

While that falls well short of a 100,000-unit-a-year pace, the average price of those Pacificas was more than $38,000 each, Chrysler spokesman Rick Deneau said.

That indicates the Pacifica has drawn the affluent buyers Chrysler wants, and the automaker almost certainly made several thousand dollars on each of those early sales. But Deneau said Chrysler dealers' preference for the expensive, option-laden, models reduced sales volume.

The sub-$30,000 model goes into production at Chrysler's Windsor assembly plant in July. Chrysler expects Pacifica sales to rise to about 8,000 to 9,000 wagons a month by year-end.

"It will help a lot because there's a psychological barrier for many buyers at $30,000," Burnham Securities Inc. analyst David Healy said.

Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of Auburn Hills-based Chrysler Group, said last week Chrysler is trying to cut costs and increase sales because of an expected $1.1-billion loss this quarter. DaimlerChrysler has said the U.S. business will miss a goal of a $2-billion operating profit for the year, mainly because incentives have reduced revenue.

Chrysler's total U.S. sales this year through May declined 6.3 percent from the same period of last year to 906,274. Industrywide sales fell 2.9 percent, Autodata reports.

"We're only four weeks into the launch of this vehicle and people are already beating the drums that it's a failure," said Michael Donoughe, vice president of family vehicles, at a Chelsea event to show 2004 vehicles. "Sales will pick up in the next 90 to 120 days."

Lower-priced Pacificas were always part of the plan, said Ann Fandozzi, director of Chrysler's family oriented vehicles.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Don't think it will be a hit like the Cruiser