Jeep Dealers Have Enough Renegades on Hand To Last 2 Years

Aug 12, 2023

More than half of Jeep's lineup is in the top 10 for dealer oversupply.

_JamesGilboy

jamesgilboy

It might still be possible to get a new car for a steal—you just have to haggle over the right vehicle. You might want to start with something like a Jeep Renegade, which a new study says is massively oversupplied at dealers, who are on track to take more than two years to sell off their current inventory.

This info comes via CarEdge, which reports the Jeep Renegade has a Market Day Supply (MDS) of 753. That means that at current sales volumes, it'd take Jeep dealers more than two years to sell all the Renegades currently on their lots—never mind the new ones on the way from the factory. To put that in perspective, Laser Appraiser says dealers should expect an inventory-wide average MDS of 70, and to avoid cars with an MDS over 125. That means the Renegade is taking more than 10 times as long to sell as the average new car.

It's far from the only Jeep among the 10 slowest sellers, too. Four of the top 10 are Jeeps, of which eight are products of its corporate overseer Stellantis. The only outliers also happen to be American, with the Chevrolet Silverado 4500 chassis-cab and Lincoln Corsair SUV also represented. Here are those 10 ranked by MDS:

The fact that Stellantis makes up the overwhelming majority of the slowest sellers is striking on its own, but what stands out most is which models make the list. After the Renegade, its second highest-ranked vehicle is the Ram 2500, a full-size pickup truck—perennially one of the bestselling classes of vehicle in the United States. It's accompanied by the Ram 1500 Classic, the more affordable continuation of the old model, indicating demand is falling far short of Ram's expectations. Or, alternatively, that dealers expect customers to pay their markups or scram.

Jeep in particular looks troubled, with the majority of its lineup represented. That includes both of Jeep's compact SUVs, the Compass and Cherokee, which stand to cannibalize sales from each other. (This redundancy may be one of the reasons why the Cherokee has been discontinued.) Even the once hotly anticipated Gladiator is in there, despite being closely related to the strong-selling Wrangler.

Meanwhile, the presence of the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is relatively easy to understand. Its minivan body style isn't fashionable with style-over-substance crossover buyers, while its plug-in hybrid powertrain lacks the environmental feel-good appeal of a full EV.

Obviously, there's much more to why each of these vehicles is a slow seller than we have time to get into, but the takeaway is clear: Every one of these cars and trucks is easy to negotiate discounts on. The trucks in particular, as well as the under-appreciated Pacifica, stand out as the best values if you're already shopping for such a vehicle.

As for the others, it comes down to what you pay for them. A good place to start seems to be $1,000 off sticker, and then seeing which dealer is willing to go lowest.

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