By Steven Symes 
Just recently, we ran across an article about Stellantis sales in North America being down, with the article strongly hinting that the real reason is Trump’s new tariff on foreign-assembled cars. While the article is careful to not come right out and say that, the headline and certain lines in it seem to allude that’s what’s really hurting the automaker. But we think Stellantis only has itself to blame as it’s made some of the dumbest decisions we’ve seen from an automaker recently.
After 100 years, Chrysler is basically dead.
Here are the cold, hard numbers: Stellantis has seen a 9 percent drop in shipments globally for the first quarter of this year. That’s bad, but here in North America shipments dropped a whopping 20 percent versus Q1 2024.
That’s the sort of thing that causes heads to roll in companies. We’re not seeing those kinds of contractions in car sales, so that means competing automakers are capturing more of Stellantis’ dwindling customer base.
But don’t worry, Stellantis apologists on social media and even in traditional media will help you know none of this is really the automaker’s fault. After all, it’s been making quality products everyone wants, like the Dodge Hornet Grocery Getter Edition or the Jeep Wrangler 4xe Al Gore Limited.
That’s a joke, sort of. Supposedly, the low shipments are because Ram just started rolling out the refreshed Heavy Duty lineup, not because Dodge has prioritized making an all-electric “muscle car” nobody wants or Jeep is getting its clock cleaned by the Bronco model family.
The fact is Stellantis has been in serious trouble for the past two years and it’s only be worsening as it doubles down on dumb decisions. This is the result of an automaker’s executives deciding they know what consumers really want or need, instead of listening to the public.
It’s possible Stellantis will start to turn a corner if reports that the Hemi V8 returning this year turn out to be true. But that’s only a part of the many problems Stellantis has created all on its own.
Image via Stellantis