The Stellantis Meltdown: How Jeep, Ram, and Dodge Lost America

There's a Jeep Grand Wagoneer sitting on a dealer lot right now with a window sticker north of $100,000.

It's been there for a while. So have tens of thousands of its siblings.

Stellantis—the parent company of Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler—posted record profits in 2023. Twelve months later, CEO Carlos Tavares resigned amid what Fortune called "a blaze of tone-deaf strategy and bad leadership." The company's North American profits have plummeted nearly 50%.

How does a company fall this far, this fast?

The Numbers Don't Lie

The statistics are brutal. According to Cox Automotive, Stellantis brands have some of the highest days' supply in the industry:

• Dodge: Down 52% year-over-year after crisis intervention
• Chrysler: Down 40% after aggressive discounting
• Jeep: Still elevated despite 14% reduction efforts
• Ram: Mostly unchanged—and that's not good news

Compare this to Toyota, where the RAV4 has just 18 days of supply. Stellantis vehicles are aging on lots while Toyota dealers field angry calls from customers on waitlists.

The company's solution? Incentives averaging more than 13% of transaction price—among the highest in the industry. Stellantis is essentially paying customers to take vehicles off their hands.

The Price Disconnect

"Know what value means to your customers and price your products accordingly."

That's basic business advice that Stellantis apparently forgot. The Globe and Mail's Gus Carlson didn't mince words: Jeep, Dodge, and Ram were once "workhorse" brands that built loyalty through attainable performance and rugged reliability.

Then something changed. Jeep started pricing like a luxury brand without the refinement to match. The Grand Wagoneer's $100,000+ price tag puts it in Range Rover territory—but Jeep didn't have Range Rover's brand cachet or build quality.

Ram trucks, once the value play against Ford and Chevy, crept upward. Dodge squeezed every dollar from the aging Charger and Challenger before killing them for an EV pivot that hasn't arrived.

The result? Buyers who once loved these brands started walking away.

Quality Joined the Chat

Price alone didn't sink Stellantis. Quality problems compounded the perception issue.

CNBC reported that "high prices and quality problems, notably in the ever-more-costly Jeep line," contributed to the collapse. When you charge luxury prices, buyers expect luxury execution. Stellantis couldn't deliver.

The company that once built the original Jeep—an icon of American manufacturing—started losing reliability comparisons to Korean competitors. The brand equity evaporated.

The Tavares Exit

Carlos Tavares was supposed to be different. The Portuguese executive engineered the merger that created Stellantis, combining Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler into a global automotive giant. He was "hailed as the very best manager the legacy car industry had to offer," according to Fortune.

Then he "shocked the market" by revealing plans to liquidate bloated U.S. inventory at fire-sale prices. The announcement confirmed what critics suspected: short-term profit maximization had created long-term disaster.

His resignation in December 2024 wasn't surprising. What was surprising was how fast the board moved once the extent of the damage became clear.

The Dealer Perspective

Stellantis dealers—the people actually trying to sell these vehicles—are "breathing a sigh of relief" at the leadership change, according to The Detroit Free Press.

But relief doesn't move metal. One anonymous Michigan dealer summarized the challenge: "It's like buying a house, it's got great bones." The brands have heritage. The products have potential. But the pricing and positioning have to change.

"If you're going to bet on Stellantis' future," another dealer said, "you wouldn't bet it on a $113,000 product, you'd bet it on a $30,000 product."

What Comes Next

Stellantis has been left for dead before. Chrysler, its American predecessor, has survived multiple near-death experiences—only to emerge with hits like the minivan in the 1980s and the Ram pickup redesign in the 1990s.

The company needs that kind of outside-the-box thinking again. It needs products that remind Americans why they loved these brands in the first place.

But first, it needs to clear the lots. Those 100,000+ Grand Wagoneers won't sell themselves—not at current prices, anyway. Expect deep discounts through 2025 as Stellantis works through its self-inflicted inventory crisis.

For buyers willing to negotiate aggressively, there's opportunity in the chaos. For Stellantis, there's a long road back to relevance—if the company can find it.