Quast

According to Bloomberg, at least two out of the Big 3 USA automakers are having serious problems this year. GM is estimated to show a sales increase in August over last year, but the primary cause is thought to be a significant shortage in inventory during 2005 rather than robust sales results this year. According to independent analysts, Fords sales will be down from 10% to 15% for the month of August compared to 2005, while Chryslers sales are estimated to be down anywhere from 8 to 15%. Both are experiencing significant declines for the entire year. Chryslers Jeep line of vehicles is experiencing a sizable downturn this year, which has to be troubling to Chrysler upper management!

The Jeep line historically has been somewhat of a pillar of sales strength for Chrysler, but 2006 is seeing an exception to this. According to Chrysler, sales of the Wrangler, Liberty, and Grand Cherokee are all down substantially from 2005. Chrysler reported that through July 31, 2006 year-to-date Wrangler sales were down 17%, Liberty sales were down 23% and Grand Cherokee sales were down 37% when compared to 2005 sales! Sales for July 2006 were down 32% for the Wrangler, 52% for the Liberty, and 58% for the Grand Cherokee. These are huge declines and one must wonder just what is fueling the drop. It has gotten bad enough that Chrysler has recently announced a big sale for their new Wrangler on September 1, 2006. See more details at www.automotive.com/features/90/auto-news/22878/index.html Can the huge decline in year-to-date sales for 2006 be due to Chrysler not significantly addressing fuel economy in its Jeep offerings? Are the latest Jeep additions, the Commander and Compass, eating into Grand Cherokee and Liberty sales? Are these drops to blame on last years huge incentive programs? Did Chrysler miss the mark with its new version of the Wrangler? Or is the Jeep name losing some of its trading power?

Fuel economy has become a major component of car buying decisions and this could be hurting Grand Cherokee numbers, but, Toyota did not see declines in the sale of its competitors to the Liberty and Grand Cherokee. The RAV4 saw its sales doubled compared to 2005, and 4Runner sales increased 4.4% over July 2005. Honda also reported sales gains in July of 6.8% in its trucks category, which includes SUVs. So the argument for fuel economy being a major contributor to the decline would appear to be a weak one.

Cannibalization could explain some of the decline, at least for the Grand Cherokee, but that still wouldnt explain the huge drop for all three vehicles. The Compass has only been out a short while and during July it was reported that only 707 were sold. The Commander numbers do appear to be good and they could explain some of the drop in the Grand Cherokee numbers.

The incentive program hangover may also explain some of the decline but certainly not all of it. Once again sales numbers were up for Toyota and Honda. Wouldnt they be experiencing some affects from the major incentive programs of 2005? If they are not feeling the pain, why is Chrysler?

The critics all praised the new Wrangler and the general populace seems to have embraced it as well, at least in the discussion forums and such, if not at dealerships by buying the new model. Fuel economy, sales cannibalization and incentive program hangover may be contributing factors to declining sales, but it seems that there has to be more to explain the size of the decline, especially in the face of Toyota and Hondas performances.

Could these declines be explained by a diluted and declining image? The Jeep image has certainly been tarnished this year with the huge recall of the Liberty, and, the front brake problems and resulting litigation with the Grand Cherokee. Its hard to sell based on quality when youre recalling 800,000 vehicles. Critics bombing the new Compass, Chryslers latest Jeep addition, hasnt helped the brands image either. In the recent past some experts speculated that Chrysler would weaken the Jeep name with the addition of the more family oriented vehicles, the Liberty, Commander and Compass, and right now it would be hard to argue with this position. Chrysler seems to have gotten pretty far away from its very successful Trail Rated campaign with the Compass. To add insult to injury, the Dr. Z. advertising campaign has reportedly been a bust.

We may not understand all of the specifics, but the Jeep image and brand identity have seen some damage with the quality issues (see Grand Cherokee brake issue and Liberty recall) and the less than excited reception to its latest addition. It would seem that this may actually be what has lead to Jeeps declining sales. Current Chrysler management had better get to the bottom of their quality issues and learn how to manage the brand more effectively, or risk losing Jeeps wonderful marketing power!

In his spare time, Al likes to keep up with what is happening with the Jeep brand. When he is working, Al is a marketing manager for one of the leading on-line retailers of aftermarket Jeep parts and accessories, Xtreme Terrain Concepts. They can be found at www.xtremeterrain.com

With all the new digital formats out there, it is of little surprise that there exists considerable confusion about EDTV and HDTV. First of all, EDTV stands for Enhanced Definition Television, while HDTV stands for High Definition Television. TVs equipped with either of these formats are capable of receiving and potraying images in a digital fashion - both of which are superior in visual quality to the standard TV (SDTV).

Which is better, EDTV, or HDTV?

This is a question that comes up quite often, and it really has a simple answer: HDTV is better. However, EDTV wasn't really made to be a competitor for HDTV, but rather a transition technology that was better than standard, but not all the way High Definition, as HDTV is. And although Enhanced Definition Television (EDTV) doesn't quite offer the oustanding life-like quality attributed to High Definition Television (HDTV), its picture is actually closer to HDTV than regular television. HDTV has an impressive 720 progressive scanning (1280x720 pixels) or 1080 interlaced (1920x1090 pixels) lines. Thus, it easily meets the requirement of high definition broadcasts. EDTV, on the other hand, displays pictures at 480 progressive scan (640x480 pixels), which is the the highest resolution available on DVD. In fact, EDTV is considered optimized for the DVD format. However, this puts a severe limit on EDTV, which is simply not able to display higher resolution HD content.

Our recommendation is that, when purchasing a new TV, you consider getting one that is "HD-ready." It is likely that all broadcasts will transition over to true HDTV format within the next decade or so. Be advised, however, that you will need to purchase an external set-top box with an ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) tuner in order to receive digital HDTV programming. Many cable and satellite providers, if they provide HDTV content, may offer this tuner for free. One final note, you may want to consider buying a LCD TV, as most are HDTV ready, and do the best job of displaying those beautiful HD images.

Bradley James is a senior editor at SciNet.cc, a website containing many helpful consumer electronics review articles. For more information on EDTV and HDTV TV technology, please visit our EDTV vs HDTV TV webpage.