For the 23rd time in the last 25 months, Dodge Division set a monthly record with 112,117 vehicles sold, compared to 111,659 during the same time in 1998. Sales of Jeep brand vehicles tallied 43,849, up 8 percent compared to last year's 39,031.

2001 Dodge Intrepid

Photo: DaimlerChrysler

There were 25 selling days in November 1999, versus 24 one year earlier, which -- due to the industry practice of calculating percentage changes based on daily selling rates – can create the infrequent anomaly of higher year-over-year volume totals, compared to decreasing year-over-year percentage changes. Car sales, at 53,970 units sold, were up 3 percent versus 1998 (50,178), while truck sales of 140,746 vehicles, were down 5 percent compared to last year's record 141,834.

The all-new Dodge Dakota Quad Cab, largely in its initial month on dealer lots, had sales of 1,331 vehicles.

All-time November records were set by Chrysler Town & Country minivan -- at 6,828 units, surpassing the previous high mark of 6,216, set in 1995 -- 300M (4,483, vs. 1998's 4,376) and Stratus (9,580, up 50 percent vs. 1998's 6,141). Not to mention a number of other carlines posting year-over-year increases, including: Dodge Neon, at 7,456 up 9 percent over last year's 6,577; Dodge Intrepid, with 11,077 units sold compared to 1998's 9,805; Chrysler LHS, at 2,304 up 27 percent over last year's 1,735; and Chrysler Cirrus, with 2,679 units sold compared to 1998's 2,417.

Jeep completed a perfect trifecta of November sales increases, with Grand Cherokee up 6 percent (23,585 sales, vs. 21,415 last year), Cherokee increasing 13 percent (13,982 compared to 11,930) and Wrangler up 6 percent (6,282 vs. 5,686).

Ford has trained more than 250 supplier representatives from 150 companies in two voluntary sessions on ISO 14001 guidelines in support of the automaker's requirement that suppliers certify their manufacturing facilities to ISO 14001. The suppliers came from the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Europe; about 25 Ford Purchasing and Environmental Quality office employees attended the training.

The classes will become more global when they roll out to Europe in the first quarter of next year- one class each in Germany and the U.K. Additional classes are being planned for other regions around the world. This training is free to suppliers.

"We have had such an overwhelming response for the training that we weren't able to accommodate all of our suppliers in our initial classes," said Doug Halliday, Director, Purchasing Business Office. "So we plan to offer the classes through FTDC, an expert training facility that conducts classes of all types for Ford and our suppliers." Ford will begin offering classes through FTDC next year at a nominal fee similar to other courses available to suppliers. Schedules will be available in January and can be obtained through the Ford Supplier Network, Ford's exclusive web site for suppliers.

Ford decided to require ISO 14001 certification of its suppliers after it surveyed its top suppliers earlier this year about their environmental policies and programs. Several suppliers indicated that some of their manufacturing facilities were already registered to ISO 14001. Many suppliers indicated that they planned to register their plants to ISO 14001 in the next few years.

In September, Group Vice President of Purchasing and Ford of Mexico Carlos Mazzorin sent letters to suppliers informing them that they had to certify at least one manufacturing site to ISO 14001 by the end of 2001 and all manufacturing sites shipping products to Ford by July 1, 2003.

Ford became the first and only automotive company late last year to certify its plants around the world under ISO 14001 -- 140 manufacturing facilities in 26 countries.

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