Spurred by Ram and Jeep® brands, Chrysler Group saw another month of year-over-year sales growth during February in the U.S.

February marked the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year sales increase with a 13% sales increase, topping out at 95,102 units.

In taking a look at the overall U.S. new vehicle sales market (link will open an Excel file) -- data courtesy of Autodata Corp. -- Chrysler Group came in as the #5 automaker with 9.6% of sales in February 2011. That's about 3000 vehicles shy of the #4 auto OEM, and about 3000 vehicles north of the #6 automaker.

In looking at light truck sales, Chrysler Group ranked #3 with 15.4% of the U.S. market share, according to the Autodata data.

For the minivan segment, the Grand Caravan  --  with 10,555 minivans sold, 12% better than February 2010 -- topped its sister minivan, the Chrysler Town & Country. The T&C had February 2011 unit sales of 7904, down 9% from February 2010 but up nearly 21% from January .

The Grand Caravan was easily the #1 selling minivan in the U.S. -- besting #2 by about 1700 units. The T&C is #4 in the U.S. (Sales units from the competitive minivans compiled by doing a Google search and finding the data from each automaker's site.)

Through the first couple months of 2011, the Grand Caravan also is #1 in minivan sales in the U.S.

The Brands  

Overall, Chrysler Group February sales received a retail boost as the new 2011 models we had unveiled in previous months started hitting dealer showrooms and were well-received: Dodge Durango sold 2731 vehicles and Chrysler 200 racked up 2319 units sold.

While those vehicles showed promise, it was the Ram and Jeep brands that lead the way with huge sales increases from February 2010, while Dodge remained steady. The Ram pickup was tops among vehicles with 18,644 trucks sold, up 82% from February 2010, and up 53% from January.

Though the Dodge Grand Caravan was the clear leader for the brand -- the only other vehicle in the Chrysler Group lineup to crack the 10,000+ mark -- sales were pretty evenly spread through out:

• Journey: 4884 units, up 18% from February 2010
• Avenger: 3477 units, up 1%
• Caliber: 3445 units, up 52%
• Charger: 3263 units, down 69% from February 2010 -- as it seems many people are waiting for the 2011s to get into all the showrooms.
• Challenger: 3227 units, up 50%

The Jeep brand also had a strong showing with 28,619 vehicles sold -- up 23% from February 2010, and up 24% from January. As with Dodge, customers spread the love around through out the Jeep lineup:

• Grand Cherokee: 8667 units, up 31% from February 2010
• Wrangler: 7636 units, up 28%
• Liberty: 5896 units, up 61%
• Patriot: 4153 units, up 39%
• Compass: 2267 units, up 19%

The Chrysler brand was hurt a bit as it seems customers held off on Chrysler 300 purchases -- awaiting for the new models to hit the showroom floors. There were only 1323 300s sold, off 71% from February 2010; but only six fewer than the 1329 sold in January.