Chrysler sales up 9% for June in US

US automaker Chrysler Tuesday reported a nine percent increase in June auto sales compared with a year ago as its Jeep and Ram brands again scored strong gains.
Chrysler, a unit of Italian company Fiat Chrysler, said it sold 171,086 vehicles last month, its best June sales since 2007.
The rise was better than the 6.3 percent increase projected by car-shopping website Edmunds.com.
Chrysler, the number-three US automaker, pointed to especially robust year-on-year increases for the Jeep brand (+28 percent) and the Ram Truck line (+14 percent).
Chrysler said sales of its Fiat brand rose 11 percent in June.
"In spite of two fewer selling days in June versus a year ago, we were able to increase our sales nine percent and post our strongest June sales in seven years," said Reid Bigland, head of US sales at Chrysler.
Chrysler was the first of the large automakers to report June sales Tuesday. Edmunds.com projected a 3.1 percent decline in overall US sales compared with June 2013.
"The industry will see lots of year-over-year and month-over-month declines, but that doesn't mean that June was a bad month for sales," says Edmunds.com analyst Jessica Caldwell.
"It's important to remember that there were fewer sales days in June 2014 than in June last year or in May 2014. In fact, shoppers this month bought 2,700 more cars per day than they bought in June 2013. So the momentum is still very much alive."