Chrysler Corp.'s two-pronged attack on the popular Ford Explorer paid off in early 1993: Its new Jeep Grand Cherokee and lower-priced original Cherokee outsold Explorer for the first time.
Chrysler sold 66,940 Cherokees and Grand Cherokees in the first three months of the year, compared to Ford's 65,181 Explorers. Chrysler grabbed 30.1 percent of the fast-growing compact sport utility market, a hair above Ford's 29.4-percent share.But Ford Motor Co. insisted Friday that the Explorer remains the best-selling compact sport utility truck, as it has been since it was introduced in 1990.
"Chrysler is playing a game," said Ford spokesman Joel Pitcoff, "by taking two products built in two different plants and saying they ought to add them together and compare them to a single product coming out of a single plant."
In the first quarter, Pitcoff said, Explorer outsold Grand Cherokee by 25,000 units and outsold Cherokee by 38,000 units.
But Chrysler's combined sales are growing at a quicker pace than Explorer's, partly because Ford is hamstrung by limited factory capacity.
Ford currently builds slightly more than 300,000 Explorers a year, on maximum overtime, at its Louisville, Ky., plant. Adding a second plant in St. Louis will bump up Explorer production by 100,000 units, but that won't happen until 1995.
In the meantime, Explorer sales will be constrained, Pitcoff said.
"We recognize that as the market gets stronger, it's inevitable that in this interim period between now and 1995, we'll lose some market share, because we don't have the capacity to grow with the segment."
Cherokee sales had been on the upswing in the 1980s and came close to catching the best-selling Chevrolet Blazer, until the Explorer debuted in March 1990. It quickly buried both the Cherokee and the Blazer.
Blazer sales have rebounded somewhat in the past year, after Chevy added a four-door version, but it remains in third place.
Meanwhile, Chrysler regained its momentum with a decision to attack Explorer from two sides.
In 1992, it launched the upscale Grand Cherokee, priced at $20,000 to $29,000, calling it an off-road vehicle that handles well on highways, too.
Then it repositioned the original Cherokee, lowering the price to $12,000 to $19,000, hoping to capture buyers who couldn't afford the more expensive version.
In between is Explorer, priced at $17,000 to $27,000.
Car buff magazines and Consumer Reports have generally given the Grand Cherokee slightly higher ratings than Explorer, saying it feels more like a car.
Car and Driver's 1993 Buyers Guide, for instance, calls the Grand Cherokee "one of the best-handling and best-riding vehicles in its class" and points out that it is the only sport utility vehicle with a driver-side air bag.
Chrysler "really did their homework on the new Grand Cherokee," said Thomas Dukes, an analyst with J.D. Power & Associates.
"They took many of the attributes of the original Cherokee, in terms of off-road capability, and incorporated them in the new vehicle, and at the same time made Grand Cherokee a very road-worthy product. It behaves itself on the highway."